Brief History of essential oils

For thousands of years, essential oils have been used by mankind for many purposes.  The Egyptians were one of the earliest known cultures to use essential oils.  The oils were used for several reasons in everyday life for these people; they were used for religious as well as for cosmetic and medicinal purposes.  Similarly in China, there were also records of the usage of these plant extracts for medicinal and aesthetics purposes.   

These plant extracts were known as ‘essential oils’ only in the early 20^th century by Rene Maurice Gattefosse.  He was interested in the medicinal value of these plant extracts.  The usage of these essential oils for aromatic, therapeutic and cosmetics benefits continued to gain popularity over the years.

For more information, please refer to http://www.aromaweb.com/articles/history.asp