Guest guest Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 In reply to an earlier mail from Michel, there is much misinformation in aromatherapy about the uses of essential oils in Ancient Egypt as well as the writings in the Bible. In Ancient Egypt all the routine tasks of life were carefully documented, both on papyri as well as carved on the buildings. I have been in several of the temples in Egypt with a specialist in Ancient Egypt (Lisa Manniche). Lisa can walk up to those hieroglyphs and read them. In Edphu temple where the cosmetics and perfumes were made there is not a sign on the walls of anything remotely resembling distillation apparatus, yet they carved and painted much of the other equipment they used on those walls. What was kept secret were the formulas, not the equipment they used. Elsewhere in other temples we find carvings of superb medical equipment, but again nothing remotely resembling distillation equipment. There has also been no record of distillation found in the numerous writings we have on both clay tablets and surviving papyri from Egypt. I have the works of Theophrastis of Lesbos circa 300 BCE. In his book " on odours " he talks about perfumes imported to Greece from Egypt. Nowhere in his works is there a hint of distillation being used to produce essential oils. In those days when they talked about 'perfumes' what they were referring to was solid or semi solid perfume unguents. These were usually animal fat bases in which aromatic plants were infused. If crude distillation was used and that is a big IF, it would have been for producing aromatic waters such as rose water that the ancient civilizations used a lot. Likewise most of the uses for essential oils in the Bible are corruption's of the effects recorded for the aromatic resins and the plants themselves, nothing like the distilled essential oils we now know. Also the actual species of plants written about are open to a lot of doubts. All this hype has originated because most aromatherapy authors never did any fundamental research before writing those books. That was one reason why Wanda Sellar and myself spent over 6 months researching and writing our little book on Frankincense and Myrrh (details on my website). We picked on those two resins because at the time there was very little on them in the aromatherapy media. That research also disproved that these resins (often quoted in AT novels as " oils " ) were primarily responsible for the preservation of the mummies. The mummies were in fact preserved using Natron a mixture of mineral salts. Frankincense resin was mainly used as an offering to the Gods and myrrh was used to put a waterproof varnish over the wrappings. The resins may indeed have had antibacterial and antifungal actions on the body tissues, slowing decay, but that was not their prime purpose. So beware of such misleading information and please do not believe a fraction of what you will read on essential oil suppliers websites on such matters, or on anything Young Living clones say. Martin Watt http://www.aromamedical.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Could anyone describe the difference (chemically or otherwise) between a distilled oil and an aromatic plant infused in animal fat? My guess is that the distillation contains a more concentrated form of the non-water soluable ingredients. But wouldn't the action be somewhat similar? Also, would resins be more alike in these two forms then a flower or leaf? (i.e. would modern frankincense, myrrh or sandlewood be more like the ancient equivalents than, say, rose or jasmine)? And Chris mentioned before that resins can cause health problems in the body. Does this have to do with everything ending up passing through the liver? Thanks for the Egypt information. Michael , " aromamedical2003 " <aromamedical-2@l...> wrote: > > In reply to an earlier mail from Michel, there is much misinformation > in aromatherapy about the uses of essential oils in Ancient Egypt as > well as the writings in the Bible. > > In Ancient Egypt all the routine tasks of life were carefully > documented, both on papyri as well as carved on the buildings. I > have been in several of the temples in Egypt with a specialist in > Ancient Egypt (Lisa Manniche). Lisa can walk up to those hieroglyphs > and read them. In Edphu temple where the cosmetics and perfumes were > made there is not a sign on the walls of anything remotely resembling > distillation apparatus, yet they carved and painted much of the > other equipment they used on those walls. What was kept secret were > the formulas, not the equipment they used. Elsewhere in other > temples we find carvings of superb medical equipment, but again > nothing remotely resembling distillation equipment. There has also > been no record of distillation found in the numerous writings we have > on both clay tablets and surviving papyri from Egypt. > > I have the works of Theophrastis of Lesbos circa 300 BCE. In his > book " on odours " he talks about perfumes imported to Greece from > Egypt. Nowhere in his works is there a hint of distillation being > used to produce essential oils. In those days when they talked about > 'perfumes' what they were referring to was solid or semi solid > perfume unguents. These were usually animal fat bases in which > aromatic plants were infused. If crude distillation was used and > that is a big IF, it would have been for producing aromatic waters > such as rose water that the ancient civilizations used a lot. > > Likewise most of the uses for essential oils in the Bible are > corruption's of the effects recorded for the aromatic resins and the > plants themselves, nothing like the distilled essential oils we now > know. Also the actual species of plants written about are open to a > lot of doubts. > > All this hype has originated because most aromatherapy authors never > did any fundamental research before writing those books. That was > one reason why Wanda Sellar and myself spent over 6 months > researching and writing our little book on Frankincense and Myrrh > (details on my website). We picked on those two resins because at > the time there was very little on them in the aromatherapy media. > That research also disproved that these resins (often quoted in AT > novels as " oils " ) were primarily responsible for the preservation of > the mummies. The mummies were in fact preserved using Natron a > mixture of mineral salts. Frankincense resin was mainly used as an > offering to the Gods and myrrh was used to put a waterproof varnish > over the wrappings. The resins may indeed have had antibacterial and > antifungal actions on the body tissues, slowing decay, but that was > not their prime purpose. > > So beware of such misleading information and please do not believe a > fraction of what you will read on essential oil suppliers websites on > such matters, or on anything Young Living clones say. > > Martin Watt > http://www.aromamedical.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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