History of Aromatherapy

The use of essential oils goes back to the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and probably Chinese, but the modern term "aromatherapy" was coined by French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé in 1928. Gattefossé wrote the first modern aromatherapy book, titled Gattefosse's Aromatherapy in the English translation.

A French doctor named Jean Valnet followed the work of Gattefossé, and during World War II, when he ran out of antibiotics, he used essential oils to treat gangrene and battle wounds. After the war, Valnet continued to use essential oils to treat illnesses and wrote The Practice of Aromatherapy: A Classic Compendium of Plant Medicines and Their Healing Properties.

Valnet's book was translated into English by Robert Tisserand, an English aromatherapist who was one of the first individuals to write a book about aromatherapy in English with the publication in the 1970s of The Art of Aromatherapy: The Healing and Beautifying Properties of the Essential Oils of Flowers and Herbs.

Since the 1970s, the practice of aromatherapy and using essential oils has proliferated.