Osteopathic
Clinic
What is aromatherapy?
Aromatherapy is the art and science of using plant oils in a massage treatment.
The roots of aromatherapy can be traced back thousands of years, from the time of the Ancient Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.
The word aromatherapy was first used in the 1920s by a French chemist called Gattefosse. He discovered that essential oils had antiseptic, pain-killing and healing properties. He found that essential oils can be absorbed into the blood stream where they circulate and interact with the body’s system. In the 1950s, Marguerite Maury, a bio-chemist, introduced massage with aromatherapy.
Other French doctors used essential oils to treat wounded soldiers in the second world war, and to treat patients in psychiatric hospitals. Even today, aromatherapy is more widely practised in France, where doctors prescribe the oils internally.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are highly concentrated plant extracts that contain complex chemical compounds (mainly terpenes and phenyl propenes). Their chemical makeup gives essential oils many antibiotic, antiseptic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties. These characteristics, not just their aromatic properties, make them important agents of healing.
An essential oil is a liquid that is generally distilled mostly by steam and water from the flowers, bark, roots or other elements of a plant. Essential oils are not really oils, nor do they feel oily, but they contain the true essence of the plant.
Using essential oils
Essential oils are readily absorbed through the skin, so massage with oils is the most effective form of treatment, as it combines the effects of the oils with the important element of human touch.
The second most useful way of essential oils is in an aromatic bath. The oils are absorbed by the skin, and also travel through your nose to the olfactory nerves in the brain. Your sense of smell is the quickest-acting sense. Adding the oils to the bath water can be a valuable way of continuing the benefit of aromatherapy between visits to your practitioner.
For further information
Please visit
General Regulatory Council for Complementary Therapists (GRCCT)