A Brief History of Aromatherapy and Essential Oils

Aromatherapy is the practice of using volatile oils – known as essential oils – to promote psychological and physical well-being. Therapeutic essential oils can provide both psychological and physical benefits when used correctly. Essential oils can be used on their own for aromatherapy or with complementary natural ingredients, such as vegetable or carrier oils.

Essential oils are the pure ‘essences’ – or ‘living energy’ – found in flowers, berries, grasses, roots, seeds, bark, fruits, and are extracted mainly by steam or water distillation. All aromatherapy essential oils have their own unique character, aroma and therapeutic properties. Since all are are highly concentrated, a little goes a long way (one to four drops is usually sufficient in most applications).

Essential oils consist of tiny aromatic chemicals that aid in a variety of health, beauty and hygiene conditions. We can benefit from these through massage, bathing, diffusing, and simple inhalation.

Aromatherapy in History

Egyptian Gold essential oil blend.

According to the orthodox view of history, civilisation began with the ancient Egyptians some 5300 years ago. The oldest pyramid wbeing built in the third dynasty, around 3000 BC, by King Zoser’s chief architect, Imtohep, who was also astronomer and physician to the King. He did much to advance medical knowledge and since infused oils and aromatic unguents used were so often in Egyptian medicine, we could probably justifiably label him as the grandfather of aromatherapy.

Hippocrates lived about 2500 years ago. In his Aphorisms, we find a rare reference to aromatics: “Aromatic baths are useful in the treatment of female disorders”. 

He was also keen on massage: “The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing… for rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid”.  

Although Hippocrates is often referred to as the father of medicine, it would be more fitting to call him the father of holistic medicine. 

The invention of distillation is credited to the Persians, in particular to a physician and alchemist called Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna (980-1037 AD). It wasn’t until the fourteenth century that the first European comprehensive work on infused oils was written. Simply titled An Herbal, it describes using oils for arthritis, gout, muscular aches, wounds and sores and in the aid of both conception and birth. Although the knowledge of distillation had reached Europe several hundred years earlier, it was not until the invention of printing in the early 1500’s that distillation books (and therefore the knowledge) really spread in Europe.

There are many Biblical references to aromatics. At the birth of Jesus, frankincense and myrrh were offered, whilst at the last supper Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus’s feet with “much costly Spikenard and the smell filled the house”.

Undoubtedly, it was the Romans who celebrated aromatic materials with sheer decadence. They bathed with essential oils several times a day, and massage also played a large part in the culture. Essential oils were used to scent the hair, body and even the bed. The most beautiful oils available were blended by highly skilled perfumers, creating celebrated fragrances.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the ‘golden age’ of the herbalist (notably Nicholas Culpeper), essential oils were a large part of the regular repertoire of remedies. It was a time of pestilence, pomanders and more perfumes, although only a few brave souls revived interest in the lost art of taking a bath! 

The second visitation of the plague came in 1603 and lasted until the Great Fire of London in 1666 (we know that essential oils are antiseptic, so there was nothing better available to seventeenth century man).

Knowing essential oils played a role in helping people ward off the plague, Gary Young the founder of Young Living Essential Oils, set out to find the secret combination of aromatics the thieves rubbed on their body to prevent contracting the plague when they robbed the dead and dying bodies of plague victims. Thus today, we have the Young Living blend called Thieves.

From 1650 there developed a gradual split between physicians who increasingly used chemical drugs and those who remained faithful to herbs. The herbalists eventually fell from grace; however both groups continued to use essential oils.

By the 18th century, big country houses in Europe often had their own ’still room’ where the ’still room maid’ distilled aromatic oils and waters from plants grown on the estate, and then used them in fragrances, toiletries, medicines and even foods. The fragrances and toiletries also had beneficial properties ascribed to them. In some ways the still room maid was an early European version of an aromatherapist.

During the nineteenth century, the ‘doctor’s bag’ contained standard remedies, including a few essential oils – although these were used less and less during the second part of the century. However, somebody drew attention to the low incidence of tuberculosis in the flower growing districts of France, particularly in the south.

It was also noted that most of the workers who processed the fragrant herbs and flowers remained quite free from respiratory diseases. This led, in 1887, to the first recorded laboratory test on the antibacterial properties of essential oils.

In the twentieth century, it was a French cosmetic chemist, René-Maurice Gattefossé, who coined the term ‘aromatherapy’ in 1937. He discovered the effectiveness of lavender oil on burns, after injuring his hand in a small laboratory explosion and subsequently treating it with the oil.

The Second World War brought the progress of aromatherapy to a standstill, with one notable exception, Dr Jean Valnet, greatly influenced by the work of Gattefossé, used essential oils as antiseptics in the treatment of war wounds. After the war he continued using oils in his capacity as a doctor and, in 1964, published Aromathérapie (now available in English). There are several establishments in France where medical doctors can learn aromatherapy, and some 1500 general practitioners now prescribe essential oils.

Today there are three teaching models, or schools, when it comes to how essential oils are used. One is known as the “French Model,” which is quite different than the German (primarily aromatic purposes), and English Model (which state essential oils cannot be used internally – which no doubt became the smart practice due to the dangerous affects of ingesting an adulterated essential oil).

The French Model uses essential oils in all ways: aromatically, topically, and internally. The internal consumption of essential oils is possible ‘provided’ the essential oil is processed, from seed to seal, in the most strict and skillful manner. This is why many consumers are confused and may debate that no essential oil (even that oil from an edible herb) should ever be taken internally. Care must be taken when using essential oils internally and the label instructions should be closely followed.

With that in mind, by ALL means heed the wisdom of the English Model and never ingest an essential oil when there is not specific instructions on the label telling you how to use the essential oil as a dietary supplement. Nearly all of the essential oils produced in the world are NOT of high enough quality to be used internally. I have been using essential oils for over 20 years and I would never dream of taking an essential oil internally that wasn’t the Young Living brand.

One can only imagine what a pleasure it must have been to live during such days when synthetic chemicals and products did not permeate every aspect of their lives and cause harm and disease. And that is the primary reason why Young Living oils are by far the best – the best for what they do contain, the beneficial constituents, and lacking the synthetic/chemical toxins that plague our products today. 

Using Young Living oils, to me, is like talking a walk back in time, our bodes resonating with the plant essential oils we evolved with over thousands of years. 

Everyday, I am grateful that Gary Young persists in producing using the strictest guidelines and continually researches and tests (both independent testing and in-house testing) to ensure that we today have the purest essential oils available.

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Article by Evelyn Vincent, Young Living Distributor. 

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