SCENT THERAPY

Every day we benefit from sweet aromas, often in subtle ways that go unnoticed. Yet the ability of scent to affect our moods and enhance aspects of our lives is well recorded. Throughout history, people have utilized scents for their healing, cleansing and preservative properties, as well as appreciating the sheer pleasure they bring. Today, these properties are being rediscovered as we reconsider our approach to health and well-being, and search for an antidote to the pressures of modern life. Be it a bouquet of fresh flowers, the use of fresh herbs in cooking, or a massage with essential oils, these potent aromas are nature's gift to mind, body and spirit.

The Power Of Scent

On the right and left: The fragrance and character of a
plant's essential oil is as individual and unique as the
person using it.
Below: Aromatherapy seeks to harness the healing
properties of essential oils contained within plants.
We all recognize how certain scents have the ability to evoke memories or arouse as instant emotional reaction, and there are countless episodes throughout history where the power of fragrance has been harnessed for a specific end: Cleopatra's lavish use of aromatics is credited with the seduction of both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony; and Louis XIV impressed guests at dinner parties by releasing doves drenched in perfume to scent the air around them.

Our sense of smell is registered in one of the oldest parts of the brain, known as the limbic area. This area is connected with memory, emotion and instinctive activities, such as sexual response, sleep, hunger and thirst. When we breathe in a scent, the aromatic molecules are quickly inhaled via the millions of sensitive cells that line the nasal passages, triggering messages that pass directly to the brain. This action causes chemical changes in the body, which affect many of the body's vital parts, from tissues and organs to body fluids and cells, as well as affecting the emotional state and spiritual aspects of the person. Consequently, scents can be used to positively influence our well-being - through direct application to the body or inhalation, by scenting the air around us, or by using in food and drinks.

The majority of these therapeutic scents originate in the plant world, which houses an abundance of aromas. They are produced by the aromatic oils contained in all parts of a plant, including the wood, bark, root, buds, seeds, leaves, fruit and flowers. The oils have an important role in the plant's survival as a species, and are described as the life-blood of the plant because of their "essential" nature. Each of these oils has a unique fragrance and character, and understanding how these characteristics work, and using them to our advantage, is the aim of scent therapy.

An Ancient Art
Scented products have been used by men and women since time began. More than 100,000 years ago, the Neanderthals made offerings of pollen and flowers to their dead, while around 7000 BC, people combined olive and sesame oils, with plant fragrance to produce ointments. The use of plant oils is recorded in some of the earliest Chinese writings, in the Vedic manuscripts from India around 2000 BC, in Egyptian papyri from 1500BC and in both the Old and New Testament stories in the Bible.

Early societies throughout the world recognized that aromas were powerful substances, possessing seemingly magical properties. In fact, the word "perfume" derives from the Latin per fume, meaning "through smoke". referring to the burning of aromatic herbs and resinous woods in ritual and healing. In Japan, kodo (perfumery) was a sacred art and special schools were set up to teach it.

The early use of scents for therapeutic and medicinal purposes was also widespread. The ancient Egyptian, Greeks and Romans built up extensive knowledge of the healing properties of plants and were skilled in the ways of preparing and using healing oils and unguents.

above: Coriander has been valued as a flavouring
and medicine since ancient times: among riches
found in the tombs of Pharaohs were coriander seeds.


There was a universal belief in the great power of fragrance to protect from disease, which led to the production of pomanders, the use of posies, strewing herbs and herbal fumigation. During the Great Plague, cedar cypress, pine, sage, rosemary and thyme were burned in an attempt to keep the epidemic at bay.

However, although scents were considered precious commodities, with ceremonial significance and healing properties, they were also associated with beauty, sensuality and pampering. Wealthy women in ancient Egypt, for example, wore perfumed was cones in their hair, which would slowly melt and cover the head and shoulders with perfume (and wax!), while at the height of the Roman civilization, there were more than one thousand bath houses in Rome, each offering massages with richly-scented oils.

above: Traditionally, herbs from the kitchen garden as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are collected and tied into bundles and then hung up indoors to dry out. The dried leaves are used in cooking.