Aromatherapy is a term coined by French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse in the 1920′s. It describes the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., for their benefits. Aromatherapy is said to restore or
enhance mental, emotional, physical or spiritual health.

The essential oil derived from the plants is the basis of aromatherapy. Each oil has its own medicinal and other properties. There are about three hundred essential oils in general use today by practitioners, but the average household could fulfill all its likely needs with about ten.

The aromatic chemicals found in essential oils are derived from phenyl propane, the precursor of amino acids, which link to make the proteins which provide the building blocks for just about everything in the human body from the smallest enzyme to the skeleton. In Aromatherapy it is held that when essential oils are applied to one’s body, like in a massage, they are carried by the skin to specific organs and systems of the body where they enhance the natural functions of these organs. Unlike chemical drugs essential oils do not, as far as we know, remain in the body and are excreted out the body. In other words, essential oils enter and leave the body with great efficiency, leaving no toxins behind. Read the rest of this entry »