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When did knowledge of distillation spread into Europe?
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Essential oil
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Knowledge of distillation spread into Europe during the Middle Ages. While ancient cultures, including the Greeks and Romans, were aware of crude distillation methods, the technique for isolating essential oils was developed during the golden age of Arab culture.1
This knowledge, along with Arabic alchemical writings, reached Latin Europe in the 12th century through the translation of Arabic texts. By the 11th to 13th centuries, the isolation of essential oils via distillation was being described in Europe, and these products subsequently became a specialty of medieval pharmacies.2341