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Archive for the ‘Perfumes’ Category

Fragrance cause Health and Environmental Issues

Fragrance is a part of our daily life. It is found in perfumes, laundry detergents, room fresheners, soaps, deodorants. All of them contain some chemical compounds which are causing major health problems. However, the use of scents is not new in our life. It has been in our lifestyle since thousands of years. But the health problems due to the fragrance are comparatively new.

The main reason behind the increasing health problems due to fragrance is that in the ancient time perfumes/scents were made from the natural ingredients. But now the vast quantities of the scents are made from the chemicals like acetone, acetophenone, ethyl acetate to meet the increasing demands and off course due to its affordability.  Making scents from chemicals are cheaper and less time consuming than extracting it from the natural resources.

Most of the chemicals used in making scents are petroleum products which are proved as one of the reason of increasing health hazards like birth disorders, disorders of nervous system and even disease like cancer. Chemicals can also lead to may allergic reactions on the skin. Those who have very sensitive skin are more vulnerable to have rashes, dermatitis, eczema, etc with the use of perfumes and other products that contain chemicals that is not agreeable to your skin. There are many people who are so hyper sensitive to certain perfumes that even the sniff can cause shortness of breath, rapid breathing, heart beat and many other reactions. Read the rest of this entry »

Aromatic sources of perfumes

The art of making perfume is known as “Perfumery”. In the recent discoveries more than 4000 years old perfume bottles have been recovered from one of the oldest perfumery factory in Pyrgos, Cyprus. After doing much research archeologists discovered that ‘Tapputi’ was the first person in the world to make perfume. He lived in the second millennium B.C in Mesopotamia.

Traditionally perfumes were made from the natural sources found in the local areas. It has been revealed from the old records that they have been using herbs and spices such as bergamot, almonds, coriander, myrtle, etc to make perfume. The flowers were not used by this time.

In the history of perfume ‘Avicenna’ a Persian doctor who was also a chemist is known as the father of modern day’s perfume. He started the process of extracting essential oils from the flowers. Distillation process were used which enables subtle tones to be extracted from the plants. The scents made from distillation process were so delicate that this technique is in use even in the modern day’s perfumery. Read the rest of this entry »