History of Aromatic medicine & Aromatherapy

This is a little tour of the ancient and more recent worlds acknowledging use of aromatic plants through history:

In the ancient world of prehistory, aromatic plants and herbs were most probably used as food or added to food as well as being burnt during fire rituals to gain favours with the local spirits.

As civilizations developed and forms of religion evolved, it seemed common practice to use specially made incense to communicate with god to gain favour in this world and in the after- World.

People also used aromatic plants' scents for medicine to cure the sick and purify the mind, body or soul. In ancient Egypt and in Persia personal perfumes were used as aphrodisiacs, to increase personal attraction and cover up body odours.
Incense and herbs were used to cleanse the air, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases (specially where sanitation and hygiene were limited) and to cover up bad smells that floated around.

Prehistory

Pre-historic Man already made use of Aromatic plants and this was verified when Archaeologists dug into sacred burial mounds in Eastern Europe and Iraq. The discovery of bodies covered with earth with dried aromatic plants and seeds placed alongside them indicated that these inclusions in the burial ground was designed to help the souls of the deceased on their journey into the next world.

Such tribal rituals and shamanistic practices were common in ancient times as people made use of the scented smoke from burning aromatic woods or other similar materials to reach the spirits and bring favour to the departed.

The Ancient Worlds

The Sumerians (4000 BC) use aromatic plants such as Fennel, Galbanum and Pine and this was found written on clay tablets discovered In Syria (in 1973), which also held the first written formula for plant remedies.

In China, the use of medicinal plants and acupuncture was recorded in 2800 BC, some of the plants named as remedies were: Aniseed, Cinnamon and Ginger.

In India, Ayurveda (Brahma's sacred book on plants) names aromatic plants as part of the secret for eternal youth. It also quotes how it is possible to anaesthetise with the help of some of these plants and gives advice on how to maintain good hygiene and health, using aromatic plants.

Ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, around 3000 BC, it was common practice to treat Body, Mind and Soul with aromatic plants. The Egyptians were experts at perfumes and cosmetics as well as medicine, and their knowledge was much in demand throughout the Mediterranean.

Ancient Egyptians are best known for embalming mummies and large amount of aromatic material and complicated procedures were involved in preserving the body of the dead.

They were aware of the preservative properties of aromatic plants and used them not only to preserved the body but also in medicine in ointments, fumigations, aromatic wines or vinegars and as personal perfumes to enhance their power of attraction and charisma.

Some of the many aromatic plants used in Ancient Egypt were: Ferula (Galbanum), Terebenth, Aniseed, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Cumin, Frankincense, Mastic, Bay, Mint and Myrrh.

Ancient Egyptian also seem to be well acquainted with the idea "as above, so below" as they had knowledge of the position of the stars (including planets) and had already established the relationship between many plants and some of the heavenly bodies e.g. Frankincense fell under the rulership of the Sun and so on.

They knew a lot about the influence that the Moon and the Sun had on life, on the Earth, and used this knowledge to balance the effects of the higher plane (heavenly bodies) on the Lower one (the Earth and its people).

They also seemed to have had rudimentary methods of extracting ‘the perfume’ (essential oil or fragrance) out of aromatic plants.

The Hebrews

The Hebrews whom also had their own traditional knowledge of use of aromatic plants for health and cleansing rituals inherited some of the Ancient Egyptian practices whilst living there and gave a lot of importance to the hygiene of the body.

Moses ordered his people, while fleeing from Egypt, to burn aromatic substances such as Myrrh, Cinnamon, etc., in order to prevent the plague from spreading amongst the living. Some of the ingredients composing Moses’ favourite incense were galbanum, coriander, angelica, fennel and olibanum.

King Solomon received from the Queen of Sheba, some seven tons of gold and vast quantities of aromatic plants and incense. The practice of anointment made used of macerated oils.

Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greeks took on the massive task of collecting and recording the knowledge of ancient medicine in the Mediterranean, including what they could saveof medicine and science from the collapsed Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt in the area and this included the knowledge of plants.

It is partly because of the Ancient Greeks keen interest in the Egyptian practices with their accompanying philosophy that medicine was able to develop throughout the centuries and forms a part of Arab medicine on which part of Western medicine rest.

The Greeks of course also made their own contributions and rationalised medicine, the great physcian Hippocrates was very keen to eradicate superstitious practices from medicine.

Hippocrates is remembered today as the physician who develop a strict code of conduct for other physician and the 'hyppocratic oath' is still applicable to physicians of today and he is often called the' Father of Medicine'

He is also remembered for saving Athens from the plague by ordering the inhabitants of the city to burn large urns of aromatic plants throughout the streets, effectively fumigating the whole city.

Pline, the elder in his Natural history, mention 22 different types of perfume oils concocted with, Marjoram, Cypress, Cystus, Iris, Nard, Myrtle, Laurel, Lemon and Rose. A century later, another very famous physician, Galen, made a definite advance by establishing certain rules in regard to preparing remedies.

Aristotle was the first physician to approach scented vapours and perfumes in a scientific manner he attempted to describe evaporation and volatility and suggest a method of extraction to obtain essential oils. Following on his track Theophratus wrote a traitise on odours. He is said to be the 'father of Botany'.

Dioscorides classified and described many plants and remedies and is said to be the 'Father of Pharmacy'

Each civilisation, throughout the ages, from the shores of the Mediterranean in Europe to those of the Middle East and beyond, have all added their own contribution to this handed down knowledge.

Many of these ancient practices have survived and are still in use often forming part of the Folklore of herbal medicine as many countries were keen to import spices, 'aromats' (aromatic plants more likely to be used in cooking and healing) and exotic fragrant plants and flowers.

Cleopatra

Cleopatra holds a special place in the history of perfumes, as she is famous for her great beauty and her own vast use of aromatic plants. She is said to have bathed in special aromatic milk everyday to preserve her skin from ageing. In her era people also made use of aromatic perfumes as aphrodisiacs, in fumigations to induce clairvoyance and enter the dream world to obtain divine guidance and for magical powers.

Ancient Rome & the Romans

As the Greek Empire began to decline many of the famous Greek physicians settled down in Rome where their services were very appreciated and well rewarded.

The Ancient Romans were also very very hungry for herbs and fragrance and used vast amount of aromatic incense and plants. Nero the notorious Roman Emperor, burned incredible amounts of incense a the funeral of his wife and had every house in his city oozing out fragrant fumigations.

The Christian World

When Jesus was born, the Magi (three wise men) came to visit him and when they saw him and as they felt his holy presence they fell in awe and gave him gifts of Frankincense (burned to honour God), Myrrh ( to honour humankind) and Gold to honour his greatness and his direct connection to God.

The Bible quotes Jesus as having instructed people to make special healing unguents with aromatic substances in order to cure various ills and requested the same when he was about to restore the life of Lazarus.

When Jesus was on the cross he was offered a wine containing Myrrh to ease his pain which he declined (Myrrh is known to have antiseptic and anaesthetic properties and has been and is still used in dentistry).

This began the Christian tradition of 'laying on of hands' to heal the sick while using scented ointments mde of perfumes plants.

Middle Ages

One has to wait until nearer to the middle ages to see any further progress in Medical advances in Western Europe, as it had regressed into the obscurity of the Dark Ages. Violence appears to have been the norm and culture particularly the written word, practically disappeared.

This does not mean that there was no knowledge of medicine and plants on the contrary, this was now the almost exclusive task and privilege of friars and monks of the Christian Church and was usually safegarded in texts written in Latin.

Crusades & Pre-renaissance period

It is more than probable that oral initiation of folk remedies still went on and the first millenium onwards, Europe finally saw a renaissance in the philosophy of life and with it medicine and a new era of learning began.

The renaissance period cames the results of the crusades in the MIddle East where culture and medicine flourished. Ssoldiers and knights returned fromt the crusades and brought back many treasures of knowledge that helped Western Europe move forwards in matters of the written word and medicine.

Arabic Medicine & Avicenna

Avicenna (Ib’n Sina 11th century), famous Physician, Philosopher, Astrologer and Alchemist, contributed much to medicine by writing his famous 'Cannon of Medicine'. He established himself as an authority on medical matters at the age of 18 and his work was to be treated like the Bible up until near the 18th century. He is attributed the invention of the the still, making it possible to obtain purer forms of essential oils (11/12century).

By then the quest for turning 'lead into gold' was raging and alchemists were busy everwhere purifying and distilling the essence of `everything' to obtain the secret of eternity. This actually helped turn the focus of medicine and remedies on chemistry and physicians of the days renewed their effort to try understand active constituents used in medicinal remedies.

Paracelsus

The search for the `Philosophical Stone' was a metaphysical quest of pure mind or spirit over matter. Alchemy reached further heights with Paracelsus, another famous physician, astrologer, surgeon, (al)-chemist in the 16th cent. He was the first to achieve and record the dissociation of active chemical agents in plants, something regularly performed today in modern pharmaceutical procedure.

Essential oils of very pure quality became progressively more available, giving rise to a renewed interest in perfumes, as hygiene practices in these days were still poor compared to past civilisations such as Ancient Greece or Rome.

Alchemy, really is the ancestor of modern chemistry, as physician sought to extract the cosmic essence from raw materials and capture the pure energy inherent within it.

This era probably marks the beginning of the split which occurred later on in the western European world, where religion was parted from medicine once and for all to eventually make place for so called ‘pure science’.

Although this was a good thing as it helped medicine to develop, it also resulted in the eradication of religous ethics and the ever decreasing value of the sanctity of life, this also changed the boundaries in which medicine operated in these days. Whether this turns out to be entirely a good thing or not still remains to be seen.

Paracelsus was also a champion of the poor and made many blistering attacks on the other physicians of the day which he called "Quacks". As a result he was sometimes very unpopular and fell under many attacks from the rich and powerful and died in poverty.

Tudor England

Tudor England, around the period of Charles II, went through a period of excessive use of aromatic perfumes and plants. People perfumed everything, the use of pomanders which ladies attached to their garments, burners, scented gloves & hankies and even moth repellents became commonplace. Perfumes, of course, were used a lot to cover up unpleasant bodily odours.

Industrial revolution period in England

Between the end of 1800 and early 1900 a German chemist working in industry invented a still which produced essential oils on a bigger scale than ever produced before. Essential oils became more readily available and it became an established fact that essential oils had definite antiseptic properties and were classified in relation to phenol another powerful antiseptic much in use at the time.

Twentieth century revolution

The turn of this century also marks the birth of Aromatherapy as we know with the work of R. H. Gattefosse, a perfumer chemist who inherited the business from his family. His research on essential oils took a boost when he accidentally burnt his hand in his laboratory and quickly immersed it in a tank of essential oil: Lavender! He was surprised to see that it immediately soothed the pain and that  its wound healed more rapidly than expected.

He established that some of the therapeutic properties of the essential oils through his research and more particulalry noted that many of them had antiseptic and antibiotic properties.

Aromatherapy was made more widely known when Jean Valnet, a doctor, scientist and professor

at ‘La Faculte de la Sorbonne’ in Paris, began to use essential oils to treat his patients. Dr Jean Valnet has lectured at many international conferences and universities and has written countless articles in scientific journals on plants and on the efficacy of essential oils on certain ailments. He has written a number of books, one of which is ‘ The practice of Aromatherapy’ and this book seemed to have inspired many and has probably contributed a fair deal to the expansion of the Aromatherapy profession.

In the fifties, another pioneer of Aromatherapy, Marguerite Maury brought the therapy to England by adding to it the dimension of lymph drainage massage. she also ahd herown view and ideas of spirituality and included this in her approach to illness and successfully treated many people.

Modern Aromatherapy: the rise of holistic medicine

Aromatherapy's capacity in the prevention of illness as well as in the treatment of specific ailments has not yet been given its rightful place in the modern medical world but progress are constantly being made towards its advance thanks to aromatherapists.

Essential oils cannot be considered only for their chemical qualities, as well as their obvious healing properties on skin and body systems, they also has a subtle and benecial influence on the nervous system, on the Mind and on hormone balance.

Many explanations have been put forward as to how they work but so far the mystery remains.

Aromatherapy is still the fastest stress release therapy, unfortunately, essential oils are often tampered with through adulteration, or the raw material is of poor quality something not possible to detect unless you are a chemist.

The rise of psychosomatic illnesses such as allergies, asthma and the health hazards arising from the pollution of environment has brought Medicine to a full circle. The rapid expansion of alternative and complementary medicine is a strong indication of the necessity to have a more wholesome approach to illness.

This should include taking into account the root cause of health problems and any psychological factors rather than operating on a strictly scientifically based, which often turns out to be a fairly impersonal or uncaring form of medicine.

The Sensory Therapy

Aromatherapy is considered an art as it involves a lot of practice in smelling, recognising and defining scents, it is also known to make the recipients of these scents more conscious or aware.

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Becoming more aware of what is being smelled certainly allows individuals to expand awareness of their environment and sometimes even expand their perspective of life.

The same applies to an aromatheapist as choosing scents to make a blend for another for therapeutic ends requires not only a lot of experience and knowledge of the scents of essential oils but also to have a little intuition in order to make the right choice.

Copyright © Nicole Perez 2006