When scent was sacred
The ritual and medicinal use of aromatic plants is as old as civilisation itself. In Ancient Egypt the priests burned resins such as frankincense and myrrh in the temples, and perfumed oils formed part of both worship and embalming.
China, India and Greece
In China, ancient medical texts already record the use of aromatic plants. Ayurvedic medicine in India incorporated massage with perfumed vegetable oils. And in classical Greece, the Hippocratic tradition recommended perfumed baths and aromatic massage as part of a medicine that treated the whole body.
The technical leap: distillation
The decisive advance came with steam distillation, perfected in the medieval Islamic world and usually associated with the figure of Avicenna (980-1037). Thanks to it, concentrated essential oils could be extracted; rose water was one of the first products obtained this way and became an article of international trade.
1937: the word is born
The term "aromatherapy" was coined by the French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé, who published a book of that name in 1937. The anecdote usually told — that he burned his hand in the laboratory and plunged it into lavender oil — is part of the sector's folklore; it is best taken for what it is, a founding story, and not as proof of efficacy.
And here is the part almost nobody clears up
This whole history is about essential oils: extracts obtained from plants by distillation or pressing. The scenting of spaces that we do is something else: we work with fragrances, perfumery compounds formulated for nebulisation. They are not pure essential oils and they have no therapeutic effect; their function is environmental and a matter of brand identity.
We think it is more honest to say so than to wrap a perfumery product in five thousand years of Egyptian history. If the technical difference between the two interests you, we explain it in essential oil or fragrance.
And if what you are after is scenting your home or your business, you can see the range in fragrances and diffusers.
