Llewellyn's 2016 Herbal Almanac: Herbs for Growing & Gathering, Cooking & Crafts, Health & Beauty, History, Myth & Lore (Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 2016 herbal almanac, llewellyn&#39, llewellyns herbal almanac, s herbal almanac, herbs, green living, 2016, herbalism
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2015-09-08T06:00:00+00:00

[contents]

Herb Crafts

Herbal Perfumes

By Suzanne Ress

I think the most impressive quality of aromatic herbs is their scent. The odors of fennel, parsley, and fenugreek remind me of my grandmother; bay leaf and mint of my father; horehound of my grandfather; and lavender and lemon verbena of the summer I was eleven years old. The reason for these associations is not always clear. Perhaps there was a derivative of one of these herbs in a perfume or cosmetic, or even a household cleaner, associated with a person, time, or place that I was barely aware of at the time.

The part of our brains that receives and interprets the odors of airborne volatiles is called the olfactory bulb. Information about odors is stored in long-term memory, the same area of the brain that stores emotional memory, so it comes as no surprise that odors frequently trigger strong memories and can have an effect on one’s emotions.

When my oldest child was just over a year old, she would toddle into my side-yard herb garden to pick basil leaves. Inhaling their fragrance brought a smile to both our faces. I still think of this whenever I smell basil.

Since antiquity people have been enticed by various and complex aromas. For this and other reasons, herbal plants, with their pleasantly strong and distinctive aromas, were held with reverence and considered sacred by ancient people. Herbs were used in religious ceremonies, burned as incense, presented as gifts, and treasured for their power of spiritual transport.

In ancient Egypt dried aromatic herbs and spices were burned as incense, or fresh aromatic herbs and flowers were macerated in oils until their own essential oils mingled with the carrier oil to create precious, scented oils.

Distillation of plant aromas was first done about a thousand years ago. Persian alchemists invented the alembic steam distiller system. The Arabian physician Avicenna used this system to create rose water. One hundred and fifty years after that, in 1150, the water-cooled condenser was discovered. This was followed shortly by alcohol distillation, which also made it possible to more easily and effectively distill almost any herbal aroma into an essential oil.

Perfume making spread to Italy, and then to France and Spain, and into the rest of Europe; its use became quite widespread in the 1600s when people used it to conceal offensive body odors. Grand perfumeries were started at that time, especially in Grasse, France, known for its mild climate and vast lavender fields. Many of these perfumeries are still producing today.

In 1824 Friedrich Wohler first synthesized a carbon-based substance, oxalic acid, previously believed only to be found in nature. In 1882 the first synthetic material was used in perfumery. It was the chemical compound coumarin, which smells like newly mown hay. In the years that followed, vanillin, linalool, and more materials were synthesized in a laboratory for use in perfumery. These synthetically produced aromas were blended with natural ones to form previously impossible fragrances.

With time, more and more aromas have been synthetically produced, so that now most mass-produced fragrances contain at least some synthetics.

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