Aromatherapy uses essential oils (concentrated extracts from blossoms, roots, herbs, leaves, seeds) to promote physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. The oils are most often used by inhaling them or by massaging into the skin.
Essential oils are extracted one of two ways: either by steam distillation or expression, or pressing. Distillation is the most prominent method used to extract aromatherapy oils, however. This technique involves steaming the plant matter until it breaks down. The byproduct of this breakdown phase is the plant’s fragrant oil, which is cooled, separated from the water and finally filtered into its pure essential oil.
When the essential oil is extracted via the expression method, it is actually pressed from the plant source the same way lemon juice is pressed from a lemon.
If you would like to apply aromatherapy in our INUA cabins, we recommend you to read more about our steam saunas and aromatherapy stones.
There are a wide number of essential oils available, each with its own healing properties:
The use of botanicals as healing agents is a long-standing practice throughout human history. In fact, essential oils and other botanicals have been used in wellness practices as early as at least 5,000 years ago in a number of ancient civilizations including the Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.