About lanolin: A lanolin history of nourishment and healing

Humans domesticated sheep over 11,000 years ago, making them the second oldest domesticated animals after dogs. People have made full use of what sheep provide—including lanolin with its nourishing and moisturizing properties. The Greek physician Dioscorides mentioned wool grease (oesypus) as early as the 1st century in his Materia Medica and explained how to extract it from hot wool-washing water. During the Middle Ages, medical authors included oesypus in works such as the Dispensarium Coloniense (1565) and recommended it in wound-healing ointments.

In the early 1800s, changes in wool scouring—like the use of soap and soda—began to reduce the quality of wool grease. Some factories even discarded it as a by-product. But in the 1880s, Oscar Liebreich and Otto Braun developed a method for refining wool grease using centrifugal force. They named the resulting purified substance lanolin, from the Latin lana (wool) and oleum (oil). Lanolin quickly became popular in medical preparations, prompting scientific studies into its healing potential.