Herbs

Before the 11th century, perfumers had no way to extract oils from flowers or herbs. Liquid perfumes consisted of crushed herbs steeped in oil, or petals pressed into blends. This limitation shaped ancient Greek perfumery heavily, where herbalists used entire plants including roots, not just flowers. The Persians and Arabs changed everything. As traders with access to an extraordinary range of botanicals, Islamic cultures cultivated and refined herb use in daily life and religious practice. They introduced steam distillation to Western perfumery, transforming how herbs could be captured and used. By the 19th century, chemistry allowed perfumers to isolate specific aromatic molecules from herbs, creating the synthetic aromatic compounds still used today.