In the late 1800s, Auguste Ponsot, a Frenchman, traveled through Armenia and noticed that many people fragranced and disinfected their homes and businesses by burning benzoin (a resin produced by trees of the genus Styrax). Personal and public hygiene were hot topics at the time in France, and Ponsot felt Europeans, too, could benefit from burning benzoin at home. Realizing most ‘modern’ European families would not go to the trouble of burning raw benzoin, he sought the help of a pharmacist, Henri Rivier, to come up with an easy way to burn the resin.
Rivier dissolved raw benzoin in 90% alcohol, added some “secret” aromatics to the mixture, and soaked paper in the sweetly scented liquid. The paper was put through a saline bath to make it burn slowly. This fragrant paper was then burned and its smoke scented and cleansed the air. The new product was called Papier d’Arménie and became popular immediately. It has been produced for over 120 years in the Paris suburb of Montrouge…
