Tārīkh-i pizishkī i.e., Medical History

Abstract

Nowadays "Aromatherapy" as a branch of phytotherapy is an alternative and complementary medical discipline. The historical studies show us that ancient cultures had a great attention to aromatic plants and used to apply them widely in various aspects of their life from religious rituals and embalming their deads to cosmetics and medicinal purposes.

Considering the ancient litterateurs, the fragrances were used widely both for preventive and therapeutic purposes in Iranian traditional medicine. Our great physicians (Hakims) like Rhazes , Avecinna , Ali Ibn Rabban Tabari and  so on, had designed and practiced a systematic therapeutic protocols consist of natural aromatic and  smelling  drugs  beside other types of therapies, for a wide range of diseases which will be explained in the full text of this article. For example Ibn Nafis in "Al moujaz fi al-tibb" said:" pleasant smells are one of the good  general treatments for most of the diseases."

In addition, there are many methods of preparation of natural aromatic drugs in our traditional pharmaceutical texts like "Gharabadine kabir","tohfa al-momenin" and "Makhzan al-advieh". So we can conclude that Iranian traditional medicine has a more important role in innovation and progress of aromatherapy than whatever has been supposed.