THE’aromatherapy, it is a therapeutic approach which uses essential oils (EO) for the purpose of prevention, comfort or to cure. But if the use of aromatic plants is as old as medicine, it was only at the end of the 19th century that the first studies on the properties of essential oils were carried out. In 1928, the chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé invented the word “aromatherapy” following a accident.
While he burn gravely in his laboratory, he reflexively plunges his injured hand into a basin filled with lavender essential oil and the relief is immediate. His curiosity will push him to continue his investigations. It is he who will pave the way for current practice.
Did you know ?
It was the Persian philosopher, physician and scientist Avicenna who was the first to extract a pure essential oil. Thanks to the Persian teachings on distillation, he developed a kind of still to extract therose oil. Following this invention, this oil will be part of the treatments recommended in some of his medical writings.
A little history
The Egyptians used essential oils to embalm their dead 4000 years before our era. Closer to home, Dr Jean Valnet (1920-1995), army doctor and surgeon, treated wounded soldiers with a selection of HE antiseptics. In the 1970s, researcher aromatologist Pierre Franchomme discovered chemotypes, in other words “the fingerprint” of each EO, its major or distinctive biochemical component. An advance that today allows a more targeted, more precise and more efficient practice of aromatherapy.
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