History of Perfume

Perfumery, or the art of making Perfumes and Fragrances, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and Persiansn although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based.

The world's first recorded chemist is considered to be a person named Tapputi, a perfume maker who was mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia.[1]

Recently, archaeologists have uncovered what is believed to be the world's oldest perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus, those perfumes date back more than 4,000 years, the perfumes were discovered in an ancient perfumery factory, at least 60 distilling stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were found in the 43,000-square-foot  factoryn in ancient times people used herbs and spices, like almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin, bergamot, but not flowers.

The Persian doctor and chemist Avicenna introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most commonly used today, he first experimented with the rose, until his discovery, liquid perfumes were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs, or petals which made a strong blend, rose water was more delicate, and immediately became popular.

Knowledge of perfumery came to Europe as early as the 14th century due partially to the spread of the Islamic Religion, but it was the Hungarians who ultimately introduced the first modern perfume. and was made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution, and was made in 1370 at the command of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and was known throughout Europe as Hungary Water.

The art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, and in the 16th century, Italian refinements were taken to France by Catherine de' Medici's personal perfumer, Rene le Florentin, his laboratory was connected with her apartments by a secret passageway, and France quickly became the European center of perfume and cosmetic manufacture.

Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France, during the Renaissance period, perfumes were used primarily by royalty and the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from the sanitary practices of the day, partly due to this patronage, the western perfumery industry was created, and by the 18th century, aromatic plants were being grown in the Grasse region of France to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials, even today, France remains the centre of the European perfume design and trade.

Plants have long been used in perfumery as a source of essential oils and aroma compounds, and are by far the largest source of fragrant compounds used in perfumery, the sources of these compounds may be derived from various parts of a plant, a plant can offer more than one source of aromatics, for instance the aerial portions and seeds of coriander have remarkably different odors from each other. Orange leaves, blossoms, and fruit zest are the respective sources of petit grain, neroli, and orange oils.