The History of Essential Oils
The history of essential oils predates their manufacture and begins with the attraction that people have had with scented oils since ancient times. Aromatic plants steeped in oil were used as elements of religious and therapeutic practices in early cultures throughout the world. It was widely believed that scent provided a connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. Anointing with perfumes and fragrant oils was an almost universal practice that continues to this day. The word perfume comes from the Latin per, meaning “through,” and fume, “smoke.” 1
Ancient Use of Scented Oils
Dating to the sixteenth century BCE, the Ebers Papyrus is the oldest written record on the use of medicinal plants in Egypt.2 Along with the physical details of plants, it contains herbal recipes and information on perfumery and incense. Egyptian physicians often served as perfumers, producing medicinal oils that doubled as fragrance. Those who specialized in embalming the dead also used their expertise by creating mixtures to beautify the skin and protect it from the damaging harshness of the desert climate.
Always a valuable commodity, frankincense was regarded as the perfume of the gods. It was used in temple rites and as a base for personal perfume. Because aromatic oils were highly prized, the use of them remained in the province of the upper classes. These oils were often kept in exquisite bottles made of alabaster, jade, and other precious materials that were functional as well as beautiful. Some of these flasks retained scent until archaeologists opened them thousands of years after being sealed.
The Babylonians also used aromatic plants and became a major supplier of plant material to neighboring countries. Cedarwood, cypress, myrtle, and pine were highly prized. The Assyrians were also fond of aromatics for religious rituals as well as personal use.
Some of the earliest writings from India, known as the Vedas (c. 1500 BCE), contain praises to the natural world, along with information about aromatics, including cinnamon, coriander, ginger, myrrh, sandalwood, and spikenard.3 This information served as the backbone for Ayurvedic medicine, which is believed to be the oldest system of healing. Although the tenth-century Persian physician and philosopher Ibn Sina (980–1037), also known as Avicenna, is often credited with discovering the distillation process, archaeological evidence suggests that distilling aromatic plants into essential oils was achieved in India around 3000 BCE.4
The roots of Traditional Chinese Medicine began with a text called The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, which included the use of aromatics. Phoenician merchants traded scented oils around the Mediterranean, bringing aromatic treasures from the Far East to Europe, most notably to the Greeks and Romans.
As the popularity of perfumes increased among the Greeks, the medicinal properties of herbs and oils became common knowledge. Unlike Egyptians, Greeks at all levels of society used aromatic oils. The ancient Romans carried on the Greek use of botanicals for medicinal and perfumery purposes. In addition, they scented their entire surroundings, from their bodies, clothes, and homes to public baths and fountains.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the use of perfumery waned as Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages. To escape the upheaval, those who could afford it relocated to Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), and along with them went a storehouse of knowledge. As European civilization foundered, the works of Hippocrates and others were translated and widely distributed throughout the Middle East.
Medieval Times
Experimentation with plants continued and, as mentioned, Avicenna extracted essential oil, producing otto (or attar), the oil of flowers—in this case, rose. When European culture slowly recovered, the practice of perfumery spread from the Middle East to Spain, where it became exceedingly popular. After the Crusades, the perfumes of Arabia were in great demand throughout the Continent, and by the thirteenth century, a booming trade between the Middle East and Europe was reestablished.
The German physician Hieronymus Brunschwig (c. 1450–c. 1512) experimented with and wrote a comprehensive volume about the distillation process in which he mentioned juniper, rosemary, and spike lavender essential oils. Intended mainly to create aromatic water, essential oil was considered a by-product. However, German naturalist and herbalist Adam Lonicer (1528–1586) viewed the process the other way around and placed more value on the essential oil than the aromatic water. Lonicer experimented with and wrote about sixty-one essential oils. He was instrumental in introducing their use into herbal medicine.5
By the middle of the sixteenth century, perfumery made a comeback throughout Europe and essential oil became popular for masking body odor. In France, fragrance was used as in ancient Rome: on the person, in the home, and in public fountains. Experimenting with local plants, Europeans began distilling lavender, rosemary, and sage.
Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pharmacists continued to study essential oils. The research of French chemists Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884) brought essential oils into wide use by the latter part of the nineteenth century. As chemists were able to isolate and study the components of essential oils, they also began to synthesize them in the laboratory.
The Modern Era
In the early twentieth century, the advancement of chemistry was overtaking the use of herbs and essential oils not only in medicines but in perfumes and cosmetics as well, because synthetic fragrance was cheaper and easier to produce. Ironically, it was a French chemist, René-Maurice Gattefossé (1881–1950), who was responsible for resurrecting the use of essential oils during the 1920s. After burning his hand in his laboratory, he grabbed the nearest bottle of liquid, which turned out to be lavender essential oil. Intrigued by the rapid healing that followed, he devoted the remainder of his career to studying essential oils and named his discovery aromatherapy.
Although chemicals were used extensively in manufacturing medicine and perfume during the twentieth century, the rise of the ecology movement spurned awareness of how our health depends on the health of the planet. Shifting attitudes ushered in an interest in herbal medicine, essential oils, and other natural healing methods and disciplines. As more of these “alternatives” make their way into mainstream use, we are finding that a mix of traditional and conventional medicine can give us the best of both worlds.
