L’aromatherapy, it is a therapeutic approach that uses essential oils (EO) for the purpose of prevention, comfort or treatment. 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 burns gravely in his laboratory, he reflexively plunges his injured hand into a basin filled with essential oil of lavender and the relief is immediate. His curiosity will push him to continue his investigations. It is he who will pave the way for the 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 Persian teachings on distillation, he developed a kind of still to extractrose 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, the aromatologist researcher Pierre Franchomme discovered the chemotypes, in other words the “fingerprint” of each EO, its main or distinctive biochemical component. A breakthrough that now allows a more targeted, more precise and more effective practice of aromatherapy.
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