Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a branch of herbal medicine that uses the essential oils found in plants for their healing or medicinal properties. Although its name suggests that it is primarily a form of aroma or smell therapy, the essential oils are, in fact, intended mainly to be absorbed into the body via the skin, through massage, and the lungs, through inhalation. Aromatherapy is widely used to reduce stress, as well as to rejuvenate and detoxify the body. It is also used to treat a wide variety of other conditions.
For thousands of years, oils from plants have been used to lubricate the skin, purify air and repel insects. Essential oils were used in ancient Egypt for bathing and massage and in ancient Greece and Rome for treating infections. The origin of modern aromatherapy is often traced to the French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, who is said to have poured lavender oil onto his hand after accidentally burning himself. He believed that the pain, redness and skin damage healed more quickly than expected, and he began to study the effects of oils on the body.
Essential oils contain potent, biological constituents and are found in certain aromatic plants. They have multiple healing capabilities and are extracted from different parts of various plant species. The constituents are an integral part of the plant and are often considered the life force or life blood of that plant. These constituents are what make essential oils so vital, as they have incredible medicinal properties. Every oil has its own unique fragrance, individual to the plant that possesses it. The fragrance is Mother Nature’s way of propagating the species, attracting pollinators and repelling predators.
Although aromatherapy is treated as serious medicine in other countries, such as France and India, in the U.S. practitioners are prohibited from making specific medical claims by federal food and drug law. Because there is such inconsistency in aromatherapy education and the quality of essential oils available this is not all bad. It serves as an invitation to the individual to take a more active role in their own well-being and to compile personal knowledge through experience. But it’s this same lack of official recognition of aromatherapy’s health benefits that allows any product with a smell to be marketed as aromatherapy.
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