The term aromatherapy was first used in the 20th century. Its foundations date back 6000 years or more. The utilization of essential oils in particular dates back nearly 1000 years.

It is thought that the Chinese were the first to use aromatic plants for the purpose of getting well. They used to burn incense with it as to help create balance and harmony.

After the Chinese, it was Egyptian’s turn. They created a rudimentary distillation machine that enabled the crude extraction of cedarwood oil. Proofs exist that aromatherapy was in practice with the Greeks and Romans as well. Some historians are of the view that India and Persia may have also made the machine. However, very little proofs are available.

After when the Egyptian physician Imhotep, the Egyptian god of medicine and healing, recommended fragrant oils for massage, bathing, and embalming the dead, the Egyptians started using oils of myrrh, cinnamon, cedarwood, nutmeg, and clove to embalm the dead. The proof of that was found when a tomb was opened in the early twentieth century and the traces of the herbs were discovered with undamaged parts of the body. The scent was still there, faint though. The Egyptians used to use the cedarwood after distilling it through a crude distillation process. Other oils they used were very likely infused oils.

The father of modern medicine Hippocrates also used aromatherapy baths and scented massage. To rid Athens of the plaque, he used aromatic fumigations.

Modern-day popularity of aromatherapy is dawned in 1930 when the French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse gave name to the therapeutic use of essential oils as aromatherapy.