Aromatherapy
“Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived. The odors of fruits waft me to my southern home, to my childhood frolics in the peach orchard. Other odors, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as I think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening fields far away.” (Keller qtd in Feller xxii)Our sense of smell has been linked to our sense of taste, our memories, our bodies, and now our emotions. Whose mouth doesn’t water at the smell of bread baking in the oven? Who isn’t transported back in time to our mother or grandmother’s kitchen, by the smell of freshly-baked cookies? Just the thought of the distinctive rotten-egg odor of sulfur is enough to turn most people’s stomachs. We use perfumes, after-shave, scented soaps, and air-fresheners to smell ‘better’. Aromatherapy expands on this practice. It is the use of aromas from essential oils created by plants to heal and enhance a person’s mental and physical well being. The long and varied history of Aromatherapy can be traced back to the time of the Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt. Hasnain Walji wa . . .
The Healing Power of Aromatherapy: The Enlightened Person’s Guide to Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Benefits of Essential Oils. Then an alkaline solution is added to refine the oil. Enormous amounts of raw materials are needed to produce the minute amounts of oil. The steam releases then evaporates the oil. (122) Also, Sylla Sheppard-Hanger comments “It still remains to be shown conclusively that whole essential oils penetrate the skin into the bloodstream”. ” (Ryman 6) When King Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened in 1922, pots were found containing remnants of frankincense and myrrh, their scent still noticeable in the air. s no doubt referring to the hieroglyphics found in the temple of Edfu and the Ebers Papyrus---a seventy odd foot medical scroll from 1500 BC---when he contends “that their practise of medicine, rituals, embalming, and astrology incorporated the use of fragrant spices and oils, resins and bark, and that their vinegars, wines and beers were scented. After the oil is extracted it needs to be refined before it can be used. “Traces of resins like galbanum, and spices such as clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, have been isolated from the bandages of mummies. His belief in the health benefits of Aromatherapy is evident in Daniele Ryman observation, “when an epidemic of plague broke out in Athens, he urged the people to burn aromatic plants at the corners of the streets to protect themselves and prevent the plaque spreading. Jean Valnet, a surgeon, and Marquerite Maury, a biochemist, continued to work with and research essential oils into the present. A few drops in the melted wax or water can scent the air for hours. When he walked over them, the crushed petals released their smell.
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