History of aromatherapy

Treatment with aromas of flowers, resins and grains dates back to ancient times.

The effect of aromas on the human soul and body has been known for a long time. According to the generally accepted version, people learned to extract fragrant substances from plants about 7,000 years ago.

There is another point of view. Perhaps the first to use fragrant compositions were the Atlanteans, the ancestors of the Egyptians. Plato heard about this people from Solon, and he, in turn, from the priests of Egypt. The last remnants of Atlantis, according to Plato, sank into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans a little over 11,400 years ago. If we accept its chronology, then the history of Ancient Egypt does not begin from the end of the 5th millennium BC. e. (pre-dynastic period), but seven thousand years earlier. Consequently, we can talk about the little-known history of Ancient Egypt, the artifacts of which, along with later layers, have survived to our time and still raise many questions.

In Critias, Plato reported about Atlantis: “... all the aromas that the earth now nourishes, whether in roots, in herbs, in wood, in oozing resins, in flowers or fruits - she gave birth to all this there and perfectly cultivated " Thus, the history of aromatherapy goes back at least 12 thousand years only in Egypt. And it is quite natural that the world’s largest fragrance museum is located in Cairo, which captivates visitors from the first breath.

In Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia, India, Greece, Rome, aromas accompanied human life from birth to death. The secret of obtaining aromatic substances was known only to the upper class. The priests of Ancient Egypt kept the recipes for incense compositions in the strictest confidence. With the help of incense, they put themselves into a state in which the anticipation of future events became real. “Indeed, the so-called “herb of truth” exists. The combination of seven plants opens the retaining centers, and a person speaks his thoughts. This is not hashish, but a phenomenon of ancient medicinal effects. Initially, it was used to define diseases, because no one knows better than himself the reasons for what is happening inside. But the inner consciousness cannot reveal these hidden causes without special influence. Only later did rulers and courts use this as a means of inquiry and thus introduced an element of violence. But everything violent and artificial is contrary to the basis of being.”

The priests studied the effects of odors and their compositions on various human organs and systems. The result of these observations was the birth of the science of odorology and a special direction in medicine - aromatherapy. Flavors were equal in importance to everyday food. It is known that during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III (1204-1173 BC), workers in Thebes went on strike due to the lack of aromatic compounds and ointments.

The most famous biographer of antiquity, Plutarch of Chaeronea, who worked in the 1st century AD. e., left for us not only biographies of famous people. One of his philosophical and theological treatises, “On Isis and Osiris,” reveals to the reader’s inner gaze little-known details of the rituals, life and religious views of the Egyptians. He talks about daily incense and aromatic mixtures, and not only lists the main essential oils and incense, but also explains how odors interact with the human body and how they should be used in everyday life, because “the Egyptians do not consider it worthy to serve with the sick and those who are worn out from the inside.” bodies or souls pure, completely unharmed and unsullied.” Plutarch gives a recipe for the famous Egyptian remedy “Kufi”, borrowed from Manetho. “Kufi” was obtained in a special way, combining 16 ingredients in strict proportions: honey, wine, raisins, kiper, gum, myrrh, prickly gorse, seseli, sea onion, mountain resin, reed, sorrel, two types of juniper berries, cardamom and calamus. It was no coincidence that the formula included just such a number of components - “the number itself contributes to success, although it seems very worthy of praise, for it is the square of a square and the only one of all numbers containing a square has a perimeter equal to the area.” Most of these components contain “aromatic energy,” Plutarch argued. "Kufi" was used externally, internally and as incense.

In Ancient Greece, Olympians used aromatic substances in large quantities to increase strength and endurance. According to historical data, in the 2nd century BC. e. About 4,000 tons of aromatic substances per year were brought from South Arabia to Greece and Rome. It was said that Nero, on the day of the burial of his wife Poppaea, used up as much incense as was mined in Arabia in a year. Pliny the Elder wrote bitterly: “India, China and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula annually siphon one hundred million sesterces from our empire. This is what luxury goods and the female sex cost us.” Nevertheless, no one denied the benefits of fragrances.

Initiated into the mysteries of Ancient Egypt, the philosopher Plato passed on to his students at the Academy knowledge that was unusual for that time, including about aromas. The form of their presentation was often symbolic. For example, the famous treatise “The State”, behind the external form of creating an ideal state system, hides a detailed description of the process of self-improvement, features of spiritual development and the difficulties that must be faced before the divine nature (council of wise men) rules the state called Human. Plato called pleasant smells “a source of intense pleasure.” His discussions about fragrances are terse, but behind the dry phrases one can discern his extensive knowledge in this area. Oral conversations with Plato were recorded on wax tablets by his students. One of them, according to the Teacher, wrote down the following: “Smell is a sensation descending from the vessels in the nostrils to the umbilical region. Types of smell cannot be named, with the exception of the two primary ones - pleasant and unpleasant, which are called fragrance And stench. Every smell is denser than air, but thinner than water; this is proven by the fact that odorous, in an understandable way, is called something that is in some incomplete, transitional state and retains properties common to air and water, such as steam and fog; the state of the transition of water into air or vice versa is precisely accessible to the sense of smell.”

Aristotle, describing the nature of the five basic senses of man in his Treatise on the Soul, argued: “For sounds, the medium is air; for smell, the medium has no name: in any case, there is some property common to air and water; both transparent to color and this property inherent in air and water is the medium for that which has odor.” Trying to understand the mechanism of the olfactory process, he makes interesting assumptions, and then proves or disproves them. In the end, Aristotle made a conclusion that at first glance may seem childishly naive: “If what is smelled is a smell, then the smell causes smell if it causes something... But isn’t it more correct that not every body is capable of experiencing what - from a smell or sound, and what is affected is something vague and unstable, for example air: after all, the air, becoming odorous, seems to experience some kind of impact. What else does it mean to smell, if not to experience something? But to smell means to feel, and the air, being affected, immediately becomes perceptible.”

In the East, for more than 600 years (from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD), rose oil was valued more than gold, since it was widely used not only for cosmetic purposes, but also for insomnia, headaches, and respiratory tract diseases, kidney stones and gall bladder. From the 1st century AD e. Incense began to be produced in ancient Italy. In Ancient China, time was determined using the “fire clock” using smells. Aromatic essences were melted into the candles at some distance from the wick. When the fire reached this place, the room was filled with a pleasant smell, reminding that another hour had passed. One of the most cruel punishments in this country was to imprison a person in a small room filled with rotting cabbage. The smell of decomposition led to disruption of vital body systems.

In ancient Japan, members of the upper class played Kodo. It was necessary to guess the aroma that was permeated with dozens of wooden sticks heated on mica sheets. When the presenter passed the fragrant piece of wood to the players, he said: “Monko.” In Japanese "mon" means listen, and "ko" - smell. Thus, by listening, getting used to the smell, we developed our sense of smell.

Treatment with odors was traditional in Ancient Rus'. They set up the so-called “chepuchin seat” in a small wooden chamber (chepuchin), saturated with the aroma of steamed herbs. After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', incense became especially popular. The most valued was “gulaf vodka”, that is, rose water (from “gul” - rose).

Mention of incense is also found in the sacred scriptures. In the Koran, for example, there are the following lines: “Spirits are food that awakens the spirit, and the spirit is a camel on which a person rides and which manages to captivate.”

Hippocrates, Avicenna, Arnold, Pseudo-Macra, Paracelsus and other famous doctors used the healing power of odors. Alchemists have developed various methods for obtaining essential oils. The Nuremberg Apothecary Tax (1454) published a list of 56 essential oils, which by the 18th century included more than 130 items. Unfortunately, most of the medical works of medieval scientists have been lost. The subtle effect of aromas on the human body was studied by the founder of homeopathy, S. X. Hahnemann. During the First World War, the French scientist René Maurice Gattefosse, due to a shortage of medicines, began to use essential oils for disinfection and rapid healing of wounds. The results were sensational. In the 30s, the Soviet doctor A. Künzel continued to study the properties of odors and their effect on humans. Later, John Valne will summarize the research of his predecessors. Much had to be rediscovered, since the knowledge of the doctors of the Ancient world and the secrets of the alchemists of the Middle Ages were lost. The rapid development of the chemical industry in the 20th century led to the fact that artificially created drugs replaced natural ones. Aromatherapy, like other methods of alternative medicine, remained unclaimed for many years. Currently, this method of treatment is experiencing a rebirth.