The origins of lavender are quite fragmentary and patchy. We know it is a shrub, coming from Orient. It seems to have been used since 4000 BC by populations who had already developed methods to squeeze, macerate and boil the vegetable part of this bush to obtain the essence, which, due to the small quantity they were able to draw, had been used only by the most powerful personalities. Ancient Egyptians enjoyed perfumes and massage with essential oils and they were the first population to start trading this kind of products with other cultures. Archeological findings shows that a jar containing lavender perfume was positioned in Tutankhamen’s tomb.

Greek greatly esteemed this plant and its medical property was noted by Pedanius Disoscoride, a Greek doctor, botanist and chemist, in the first century DC. Pedanius investigate distillation and produced an Herbarium in five volumes, which greatly influenced medicine and was used at least until 1600.
Romans appreciated lavender even more than the Greek, so much that Virgilio himself, in Eclogues and Georgics, described the farmers of those days as pioneers in the oil and perfume production. Romans used lavender to perfume public and private bathrooms, the latter owned by rich and important personalities, and they used the oil extract from the plant to massage and cure skin, as well as to keep away a wide variety of insects (such as lice, fleas or mosquitoes).
Sometimes, dried bunches of lavender were positioned under the bed to prevent bedbugs getting closer. Lavender was highly esteemed, so much that it was used in ceremonies dedicated to their Gods.
Lavender cultivation seems to be spread by Romans during their battles, where they always brought lavender to use in case of wounds or diseases, even if we cannot exclude that, thanks to its adaptability, it could already been found in some isolated corners of Europe.
However, Romans remain the first culture to cultivate lavender systematically for further application and purpose.
During the Middle Ages, lavender’s fame developed widely thanks to the religious orders of all Europe, who exalted its virtue and use for very different purposes, such as hanging at the front door, especially the houses located in dirty and smelly streets.
Furthermore, lavender became well-known as disinfectant and an ingredient for the preparation of poultice and fumigations to fight plague.

In the daily life, lavender was used against moths, perfuming linen. Its oil was melted with beeswax to polish furniture and to contrast woodworm attacks. Farmers considered it useful to cure colds. In some regions, it was used against fainting, depression and epilepsy. Popular belief said that a little braches of lavender set as a cross and hung up at the door would have kept misfortune and Evil away.
An interesting development of lavender began in France in 1826. Here, itinerant distillers travelled looking for regions where lavender was cultivated and this practice has lasted for years.
One of the most important uses of lavender happened during the First World War. Its use, as essential oil, was decisive during a severe medicine shortage period. Thanks to its cicatrizing and mildly antiseptic property, it was used on swabs for war wounds, on the wave of the first experimental works by René-Maurice Gattefossé, french chemist, father of the aromatherapy.

During an experiment in his laboratory, he burned himself because of an accidental burst of a test-tube. After trying to cure the burn with conventional medication unsuccessfully, he attempted to use lavender essential oil directly on the wound.
Gattefossè noticed that the burn got better within a few days. Gattefossé was decisive also in the lavender production in France. His experience in laboratory about the concrete property of lavender pushed the French farmers of the Haute-Provence to cultivate it, looking for new ways to improve it, in order to rationalize the production and incentivize the creation of distilleries in loco. All that led to production and prices increases on the Second World War Eve. During the second half of the last century, the use of lavender essential oil came to a standstill, due to the arrival of chemistry and the consequent creation of domestic detergent in addition to synthetic pharmaceutical products.
Despite that, in the last years, thanks to alternative medicine and aromatherapy, a new interest for lavender is rising.