Egypt
According to the orthodox view of history, civilisation began with the ancient Egyptians some 5300 years ago. The oldest pyramid was built in the third dynasty, around 3000 BC, by King Zoser's chief architect, Imtohep, who was also astronomer and physician to the King. He certainly did much to advance medical knowledge and since infused oils and aromatic unguents used were so often in Egyptian medicine, we could probably justifiably label him as the grandfather of aromatherapy.

One of the earliest and most celebrated aromatic formulas was a mixture of sixteen aromatics, known as kyphi. We cannot be sure of the exact ingredients, but most experts agree that it contained myrrh, juniper, cinnamon, spikenard, frankincense, saffron and cassia, amongst others. It must have been very popular; as well as being used in temples, kyphi was burned in the house to make it smell sweet and used as a perfume for the body and clothes (later used as a liquid perfume by both Greeks and Romans). Kyphi was also employed as a medicine. According to Plutarch, a Greek historian, "Its aromatic substances lull to sleep, allay anxieties and brighten dreams. It is made of things that delight most in the night", making it the original 'opium of the masses'.

When one of the sealed flasks discovered when the tomb of Tutankhamum was opened in 1922, it contained an unguent that, after 3300 years, still had a perceptible odour. Analysis revealed the presence of frankincense and spikenard. Perhaps this is the only surviving bottle of the world's first perfume.

China
It has been recorded that 5000 years ago the Chinese living along the banks of the Yellow River were using calamus roots and mugwort leaves as hygiene aids. We know that aromatic herbs and massage were being made use of in China during this early period, and we could speculate that they learned to make infused oils, and so combined the two.

A significant piece of work, dated at around 2650 BC, is the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, which contains references to massage as well as the basis for acupuncture. However, the oldest surviving medical text in China is Shen Nung's Herbal, which is dated at around 2700BC, which contains information on 365 plants.

India
The oldest form of Indian medicine is known as Ayurvedic, meaning 'knowledge of longevity'. Nobody can be sure exactly how old it is, but it has been practised for at least 4000 years and is still widely practised in India today. One of its principal aspects is aromatic massage, where essential oils - especially sandalwood - are used. Ayurvedic literature from 2000 BC records Indian doctors administering oils of cinnamon, ginger, myrrh, coriander, spikenard and sandalwood to their patients.

Greece and Rome The ancient Greeks further sophisticated the use of aromatic oils and ointments, employing them cosmetically and medicinally as well as for their fragrance. Marestheus, a physician, was possibly the first to recognise that aromatic flowers have either stimulating or sedative properties. He mentions rose and hyacinth as being refreshing and invigorating to a tired mind, and lily and narcissus as sleep inducing. Padacius Dioscorides wrote a magnificent treatise on herbal medicine during the first century AD. His book remained a standard medical reference work in Western medicine for over 1000 years after his death, and much of our present knowledge of medicinal herbs originates from Dioscorides. His book has five sections, one of which deals with aromatics and contains a wealth of aromatherapeutic information. Many of the remedies he discusses are still used in aromatherapy today.

Hippocrates lived some 500 years before Dioscorides, about 2500 years ago. In his Aphorisms, we find a rare reference to aromatics: "Aromatic baths are useful in the treatment of female disorders". He was also keen on massage: "The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing... for rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid". Although Hippocrates is often referred to as the father of medicine, it would be more fitting to dub him the father of holistic medicine.

Undoubtedly, it was the Romans who celebrated aromatic materials with sheer decadence. They bathed with them several times a day, whilst massage also played a large part in the culture. Oils were used to scent the hair, body and even the bed. The most beautiful oils available were blended by highly skilled perfumers, creating celebrated fragrances that were broken down into three categories: 'ladysmata' (a solid unguent), 'stymmata' (a scented oil) and 'diapasmata' (a powdered perfume).

There are many Biblical references to aromatics. At the birth of Jesus, frankincense and myrrh were offered, whilst at the last supper Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus's feet with "much costly Spikenard and the smell filled the house".

The Middle East
The aromatic oils used up until the 10th century were infused oils, made by mixing the aromatic plant with a fatty oil and warming it. However, essential oils cannot be separated by this method. The invention of distillation is credited to the Persians, in particular to a physician and alchemist called Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna (980-1037 AD). Perfumed waters had been in use for many centuries, produced by a primitive method of distillation. Rose water was by far the most popular - used for medicinal purposes as well as to flavour culinary delicacies - and the Persians exported it to China, India and Europe.

Avicenna sophisticated and refined the process of extracting pure essential and it is said that his first successful distillations were made from rosa centifolia. This development led to an even greater popularity for rose water and for the 'perfumes of Araby'. The Arabs made great advances in chemistry at around this time, and also discovered how to make alcohol. With both alcohol and essential oils, the production of perfumes without a heavy oily base became possible for the first time. As well as roses, violets, lilies, narcissi and lotus flowers were used in this new perfumery.

Interest in the therapeutic applications of essential oils was relatively small, but aromatherapy as we know it today was quietly being born. Avicenna, like Hippocrates and Dioscorides, was one of the great physicians of his time. In the Materia Medica section of his book, the Canon of Medicine, he refers to many essential oils, including cinnamon, coriander, clove, aniseed, dill, chamomile, juniper and peppermint. Although not a great believer in massage, Avicenna did recommend it for some conditions: to prepare the body for exercise, to increase or decrease body weight, to give tone to the body, and for the infants and very old.

Europe Although the earliest Saxon book dealing with herbs, The Leechbook of Bald, dates from about 900AD, it wasn't until the fourteenth century that the first European comprehensive work on infused oils was written. Simply titled An Herbal, it describes using oils for arthritis, gout, muscular aches, wounds and sores and in the aid of both conception and birth. Although the knowledge of distillation had reached Europe several hundred years earlier, it was not until the invention of printing in the early 1500’s that distillation books (and therefore the knowledge) really spread in Europe. During the sixteenth century essential oils were in great demand for their perfume... people hardly ever bathed and clothes were rarely cleaned. Instead, powders, fragrant waters and alcoholic perfumes were liberally splashed around. It was at this time that the plague hit Europe, so lavender, chamomile, basil, melissa and thyme were commonly strewn and trodden on, both for their disinfectant and aromatic qualities. This century also saw a great step forward for aromatherapy, mainly in Germany; the central figure being a man called Hieronymus Braunschweig, a physician who wrote several books on distillation, and some on surgery. He wrote about essential oils, including rosemary, lavender, clove, cinnamon, myrrh and nutmeg. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the 'golden age' of the herbalist (most notably Nicholas Culpeper), with essential oils being part of the regular repertoire of remedies. It was a time of pestilence, pomanders and yet more perfumes, although only a few brave souls revived interest in the lost art of taking a bath! The second visitation of the plague came in 1603 and lasted until the Great Fire of London in 1666 (we know that essential oils are antiseptic, so there was nothing better available to seventeenth century man). From 1650 there developed a gradual split between those physicians who increasingly used chemical drugs and those who remained faithful to herbs. The herbalists eventually fell from grace; however both groups continued to use essential oils.

By the 18th century, big country houses in Europe often had their own 'still room' where the 'still room maid' distilled aromatic oils and waters from plants grown on the estate, and then used them in fragrances, toiletries, medicines and even foods. The fragrances and toiletries also had beneficial properties ascribed to them. In some ways the still room maid was an early European version of an aromatherapist.

During the nineteenth century, the 'doctor's bag' contained his standard remedies, including a few essential oils; although these were used less and less during the second part of the century. However, somebody drew attention to the low incidence of tuberculosis in the flower growing districts of France, particularly in the south. It was also noted that most of the workers who processed the fragrant herbs and flowers remained quite free from respiratory diseases. This led, in 1887, to the first recorded laboratory test on the antibacterial properties of essential oils.

In the twentieth century, it was a French cosmetic chemist, René-Maurice Gattefossé, who coined the term 'aromatherapy' in 1937. He discovered the effectiveness of lavender oil on burns, after injuring his hand in a small laboratory explosion and subsequently treating it with the oil. The Second World War brought the progress of aromatherapy to a standstill, with one notable exception. A certain Dr Jean Valnet, greatly influenced by the work of Gattefossé, used essential oils as antiseptics in the treatment of war wounds. After the war he continued using oils in his capacity as a doctor and, in 1964, published Aromathérapie (now available in English). There are several establishments in France where medical doctors can learn aromatherapy, and some 1500 general practitioners now prescribe essential oils.

It was in 1977 that Robert Tisserand wrote the first book in English on the subject - The Art of Aromatherapy. This best selling book, now translated into 11 languages and sold all over the world, has been referred to as "standard reference work since it was published". He has also written Aromatherapy For Everyone (1987) and Essential Oil Safety with Tony Balacs (1995); the latter being the first definitive reference guide for the aromatherapy industry on the safe use and application of over 300 essential oils. Robert is widely acknowledged as a modern day aromatherapy pioneer, paving the way for education in the subject and the growing understanding over the past 30 years of how aromatherapy can benefit our health and wellbeing.