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The Romans also were extensive users of essential oils benefits in their medical practices. The Romans perfected the art of vaporizing and then diffusing essential oils within their temples, bath houses, and political buildings. In the bath houses, they would bathe in tubs filled with hot water and scented in essential oils. This would be followed by an aromatic essential oils massage with their favorite fragrance.
The Arabs were advanced in their knowledge of chemistry in ancient times and studied the chemistry of essential oils to develop distillation methods. This was first attempted and perfected in the extraction of rose oil and rose water, which became very popular in the Middle East at this time and still are popular to this day. As trade and trade routes developed into the Middle Ages, various trading expeditions brought a variety of aromatic plants from one country to another. Even well before the birth of Christ, many wars broke out over the lucrative incense market. The most prized of these aromatics was Frankincense, thought to heal everything from Gout to a fractured skull! Caravans with as many as 3000 camels transported the precious commodity along what was known as ‘The Frankincense Trail’, a 2,400 mile path that started on the southern tip of Arabia and meandered its way to the coast of Israel. In the plague that devastated Athens in 200 B.C, Hippocrates himself enveloped the entire Greek city in a fog of antimicrobial essential oils smoke to prevent the spread of the disease. By the 12th century, nearly every single convent and monastery in Europe featured a garden filled with various healing herbs. Many of these herbs were distilled into antimicrobial essential oils that were later used to help ward off the invasion of bubonic plague that wiped out nearly a third of the entire population of Europe in the 14th Century. In the Old Testament to the time of Christ, numerous references have been made to the extreme value of these antimicrobial essential oils. But during the Dark Ages, much of this knowledge seemed to be lost, only to be rediscovered by the cosmetic and perfume industries. In modern times, a number of scientific studies have been undertaken that prove the effectiveness and benefits of essential oils, a knowledge that has already been around for centuries. Thus, mankind has traveled full circle to rediscover a lost knowledge of the ancient world that can still benefit us today. To learn more about the benefits of essential oils, click one of the links below: |
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