act Friday
Have you ever thought to stop and ask yourself "How many of today's everyday items were the result of an accidental find". Something that someone just stumbled upon? A lot of what I learn is shared by someone else, but who was the first to learn that Orange Essential Oil helps depression, or that Lavender Essential Oil was great on burns (oh wait I know, I addressed this a couple months ago on an earlier Fact Friday post).
Well here is an interesting fact about essential oils and the Plague, a pure accident!
An interesting episode of essential oils was during the great epidemic of the Middle Ages known as the Bubonic Plague (1330 A.D.) that destroyed almost half of Western Europe’s population. An enterprising band of thieves took advantage of the high mortality rate by robbing the dead without becoming infected by the disease. The thieves were eventually captured in Marseilles, France and put on trial. The judge offered the thieves leniency if they would reveal how they managed to avoid the ‘Black Death.’ It turned out that the thieves were perfumers and spice traders. By rubbing themselves with a blend of highly antibacterial aromatics, they had effectively immunized themselves.
Thank you to the Essential Oils overview and Reference guide.
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