Brief History of Essential Oils

Essential oils have been used for ages due to their benefits to human health. Actually, these oils are known to be some of the oldest and most powerful substances that have been used on earth with their usage being seen in diverse regions of the world. Since the use of the oils has been evidenced all around the world, pinpointing the actual point on the globe where they were first noted as effective agents of healing is actually difficult. However, evidence has been found showing the ancients truly had a knowledge of the use of essential oils for healing. One such evidence was found in Lascaux in the Dordogne region located in France. There were cave paintings that seemed to suggest the use of plants for medicine, which have been carbon dated to go as far as 18,000 B.C.E. Below are some of the areas where the use of essential oils has been recorded in history.

1. Egypt: Both history and evidence have shown that the people in Egypt used essential oils from around 4500 B.C.E. Actually, Egypt gained popularity for their knowledge of essential oils, ointments, and cosmetology. They used oils from trees and transformed them for use as medicine, for beauty and other purposes. At the era when Egypt reached the peak of its power, they limited the use of these oils to only priests. This was because Egyptians thought that it was a requirement for the priests to be one with their gods. Specific. essential oils were set aside for specific groups of people and specific purposes. For instance, the pharaohs had special essential oil blends for love, war, meditation among others. Though the Egyptians had many uses for the oils, they didn’t extract all of them on their own and had to import many of them.




2. China: In China, the first use of essential oils was recorded during the reign of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) between 2697 and 2587 B.C.E. He wrote a book named ‘The Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine’, which was very famous. It contained some uses of some essential oils. This book is still used by some eastern medical practitioners.

3. India: Indians created the popular “Ayur-Veda” traditional medicine, which has a history of over 3000 years, which had different essential oils mixed in. There was a period in India where there was an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague where the use of antibiotics became ineffective. Ayur Veda was used successfully to control it. The Indians also used essential oils for spiritual purposes.

4. Greece. In Greece, the knowledge of essential oils was first recorded between 400-500 B.C.E. Their use of essential oils was adopted from the Egyptians. Hypocrites, who were a Greek physician (between 460 and 377 B.C.E), researched about 300 plants, and documented the effects the plants seemed to have. He gained the idea from the Indian Ayurvedic medicine. The knowledge documented by this physician influenced modern medicine to this day where you can still see that doctors take the ‘Hippocratic oath’. Hippocrates was especially known for his study and use of oregano in his practice. Another Greek who had deep knowledge of essential oils was Galen. He categorized plants according to their medicinal properties, which are known as ‘Galenic’ to date.

5. Rome: The Romans applied perfumes lavishly to their clothes, beddings, and bodies. It was also a custom in Rome to make use of oils in baths and massages. All these oils were essential oils from plants.



6. Persia: Ali-Ibn Sana (who was commonly referred to as Avicenna the Arab) was a young prodigy becoming an educated physician by the time he was only 12 years old. He wrote books about the effects of 800 plants on the human body. He also received credit for being the first person that discovered and recorded how to distil essential oils. The methods he recorded are still being used today.


7. Europe : The knowledge of essential oils spread to Europe during the Crusades where the armies passed on the knowledge that they had gotten from the Middle East. The knights brought with them perfumes and were also able to acquire knowledge about distillation. During the Bubonic plague in the 14th century, pine and frankincense were burnt in the streets with the aim of warding off ‘evil spirits’. A lesser number of people died of the plague in areas where this was done. Later, a French chemist known as René-Maurice Gattefossé came up with the term ‘aromatherapie’ as he was investigating the antiseptic abilities of essential oils. He published a book called ‘Aromatherapie’ in 1928 in which he showed different types of essential oils and their respective healing properties. The book influenced medical practices in France greatly. Gattefossé discovered the healing properties of lavender accidentally when an explosion that occurred in lab caused serious burns on his hands. He immersed in a tray that had liquid nearby which he later realized was lavender essential oil. He was astonished to see that his hand healed without scarring or even getting an infection. Gattefossé went on to conduct further research on the healing properties of lavender essential oil with his colleague. He later introduced it to many French hospitals. There was a time when there was an outbreak of Spanish influenza where no hospital personnel died. This was later credited to the use of lavender essential oil.

The use of essential oils has also been recorded in religious texts. These oils have been used for anointing’s numerous times in the Christian and Jewish faiths.

Currently, aromatherapy has been accepted by many and is used for a wide range of purposes such as medicine, to promote good health, for beauty purposes, as the natural perfume, to balance people’s emotions and for healthy skin. Today many people are even studying aromatherapy in schools.
In the following chapter, we will look at how to find pure essential oils. Using poor quality essential oils will not only make the oils ineffective but can even make them have negative effects on the body.