What is aromatherapy?

Using aroma or scents as a form of therapy?

Actually, it is more than that.

Aromatherapy as we know it today started from a lab accident. The father or aromatherapy burnt his hand in the lab and plunged it immediately into the nearest inert liquid, which happened to be lavender oil.

His hand healed much faster than expected, without any scarring. Fascinated, he studied the properties of lavender oil and hence aromatherapy was born.

Tea tree oil is another oil with proven medicinal properties. It kills bacteria and can be found in antiseptic solutions in pharmacies.

In Europe, aromatherapy is a respected branch of medicine with doctors trained in the medicinal properties of plant essential oils.

Essential oils are concentrated oils distilled or otherwise extracted from plants. These contain components with different properties, some of which have yet to be identifed.

For example, it takes 3000 to 5000 kg of rose petals to make 1 kg of rose essential oil. More than 140 molecules have been found in rose essential oil.

Attempts to duplicate that costly oil, though admirable, can never duplicate the real thing exactly. Some of these components e.g. geraniol are found in other essential oils, like geranium, hence cheaper oils are sometimes used to mimic rose oil.

Scent aside, these components have different medicinal properties. Some are anti bacterial, some anti-viral, some anti-fungal, some stimulating, some relaxing… the list goes on.

Aromatherapy makes use of these properties as part a complementary therapy for wellbeing.