Aromatherapy as used today originated in Europe and has been practiced there since the early 1900s. Practitioners of aromatherapy believe that every oil has a vibration or note, which can be used for different therapeutic applications.
Aromatherapy can be used to relax and soothe the mind and body, to energize or even to arouse. Aromatherapy derived from the use of essential oils to solicit specific emotions. Essential oils have been used for thousands of years for their health supporting properties. The powerful aromas of essential oils affect your moods and feelings through your sense of smell.
By selecting a particular scent, you can encourage a state of relaxation, romance, healing or comfort. Essential oils can be used in Aromatherapy, to scent potpourri, lotions, cosmetics, perfumes, food flavorings and medicinally.
Additionally oils can be used in creating sachets, potpourri, reviving potpourri, and for light bulb scenting. Essential oils can also be used via the bath, diffusion, massage, or compress. Each individual person, fabric, or material may react differently to a particular suggested use.
Essential oils can be mixed in a cream. Essential oil combinations are applied directly to the skin for beauty care or treatment of sores or irritations. By using different essential oils, you can control the nature of those benefits.
A unique property of plants is that many contain natural fragrance or perfume-like scents known as essential oils. Essential oils come from plants while fragrance oils are artificially created and often contain synthetic chemicals.
Essential oils are taken from a plant's flowers, leaves, stalks, bark, rind, or roots. The yield of essential oil differs with individual plant species-ranging in most cases from about 0.2 to 2.0%. That's why literally tons of plant material are required for just a few hundred pounds of oil.
In some cases different organs of a single plant may contain essential oils of different chemical composition. In the end, even the smallest bottle of essential oil can create a lot of powerful solutions. It is important to note that the benefits of aromatherapy do depend on the unique nature of each person's response to an aromatic stimulus.
