The Ancient Greeks - the first aromatherapy manual
The Ancient Greeks, particularly a Greek from Cilicia (opposite Cyprus) called Pedanius Dioscorides practiced a form of aromatherapy, although it’s quite different from aromatherapy as it is practiced today. He practiced as an army surgeon during the time of the Emperor Nero and instead of giving fiddling lessons he wrote a five volume encyclopedia which not only formed the basis of aromatherapy but also pharmacology. He travelled around the known world – although at this time Ipswich was on the very edge of this world, Britain having only just been conquered by Rome. In these books, known as “De Materia Medica” he catalogued the medical properties of plants as they were used around the Roman Empire and the way in which these plants were applied, including on the skin.
Distillation and the growth of Essential Oils
Essential oils are the oils that are distilled from plants, and these form the basis of modern aromatherapy. This involves passing steam through the plants that a person wishes to use, collecting the water and then seperating out the oils from the water through boiling the result and collecting the oils which have a different boiling temperature to the oil.
Distillation was first used for medicinal purposes by the Persian scientist and philosopher Avicenna. Distillation soon caught on, not only for essential oils used by aromatherapists but also for things as diverse as perfume and gin.
Modern Aromatherapy starts – the twentieth century
Despite its ancient and medieval roots aromatherapy really only became an established discipline in the twentieth century. From the turn of the century onwards it was used by a small number of French doctors and scientists. The first conscious aromatherapy manual was called “Aromathérapie: Les Huiles Essentielles, Hormones Végétales” by a chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé, one of the first people to use the term aromatherapy, and to put it into a scientific form.
In the second world war the French army surgeon Jean Valnet used it as an antiseptic so that wounded soldiers could be treated.
Professionalisation
A lot of people call themselves aromatherapists, but there are in fact professional bodies, such as the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists, to which I belong. These need exams, insurance and continuing professional development to be able to claim to be a member.