Knowledge of aromatic essences has existed since the dawn of time. Here are the main stages:

• 40,000 years BC, Australian Aborigines were already using aromatic plants through the rudimentary means of fumigation (smoke inhaled from aromatic plant fires) and poultices (clay pastes mixed with aromatic plants and applied to the skin).

Hippocrates of Cos
father of Western medicine

• 5,000 years before our era, the first Chinese pharmacopoeia tells us about the use of two major aromatic plants, still widely used today: ginger and cinnamon.
• 2,800 BC, Egypt used aromatic essences in the mummification process, but also as an ingested medicine.
• 2000 years BC, India brought us an original medical approach, Ayurveda, very focused on aromatic plants and their energetic actions.
• From ancient Greece and Rome, Hippocrates of Cos (father of Western medicine), then Dioscorides and Galen bequeathed to us their aromatic knowledge in numerous reference works for this period.
• In the 22nd century, Hildegard of Bingen, considered the first truly modern herbalist, created herbal health remedies that are still used today.
• Around 1200, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), a Persian prince and physician, invented the first still worthy of the name for distilling aromatic plants and produced the first pure essential oil: Rosa centifolia . The Arab invasions of Spain and the Crusades brought this technology to Europe.
• Around 1400, the pharmacist was called Aromaterii and the vinegar of the four thieves, composed exclusively of plant essences, protected against the plague.

Today, other scientists and therapists have taken over to have this approach recognized as a medicine in its own right: Gattefossé, Valnet, Duraffourd, Franchomme, Baudoux,....