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From Newsweek, Dec. 14, 1998, p. 53:

"Frankincense and Myrrh: These resins are not such weird baby presents after all. Myrrh acts as an antibiotic and analgesic, great for a new mother. The Romans recommended frankincense for treating cuts and bleeding."

From Shakespeare, "Antony and Cleopatra," Act 2, Scene 2:
"The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold; purple the sails, and so perfumed that the winds were lovesick with them…"

From "Being Green: On the relationships between people and plants" by Larry Dossey, M.D. published in Alternative Therapies, May-June, 2001, Vo. 7, No. 3:

"Watson describes how, every time he visits Madagascar, he tries to learn from the local healers or ombiasy something of their techniques. When he asks them how they know that an extract from the leaves of a local flowering plant, picked in the spring, is good for a condition they call 'milky blood,' he always gets the same answer. 'Oh, it's easy,' they say, 'We ask the plants.'"

And then, describing the experience of a botanist who visited Peru, working with descendents of Indian and Spanish lineage:

"'It was suggested to me that I do their way of instant bioassay of a plant,' she relates. 'You would take a few leaves and crumble them and rub them on your face and forehead. Then lie down in the hammock or sit in the forest with your eyes closed and become very receptive, suspend judgment, be clear, and find whatever occurs. It is the unbidden information that's actually valued the most. That which we don't lead, that which we don't direct."

From "Use of aromatherapy as a complementary treatment for chronic pain" by Jane Buckle, MA, RN, Bphil, published in Alternative Therapies, Sept. 1999, Vol. 5, No. 5:

"The effects of aroma have instant reactions: just thinking about a smell can sometimes be as powerful as the actual smell itself."