ABSTRACT
Essential oils have been described as “the volatile, organic constituents of fragrant plant matter and contribute to both avor and fragrance and are extracted either by distillation or by cold pressing (expression)” (Tisserand and Balacs, 1995). Physician Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Hussein Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, 980-1037) from Persia invented the process of distillation, starting the history of the distillation of essential oils (Tisserand, 1988). Frenchman René Maurice Gattefossé, in the 1920s, coined the term aromatherapy; aromatherapy is today considered a subcategory of herbal medicine (or phytotherapy). Since the 1980s, the popularity of aromatherapy has widely increased in the Western world. Aromatherapy encompasses the use of essential oils derived from different types of plant sources for a variety of applications. Generally, the whole fresh plant (not crushed or powdered) is used for the essential oil distillation process.
