Our Story - The History of AWB

The History of American Wilderness Botanicals

American Wilderness Botanicals was established in the spring of 2014 though our research and development goes back as far as the Fall of 2008. Our premiere product line was named “IanBotanique”. The name IanBotanique is the combination of two separate words from two different languages. The word “Ian” means "wild" in the native Shoshone language and “Botanique” is of course the French word for "plants." Hence the meaning of the name combination of IanBotanique is wildplants.

The native Shoshone and Crow tribes traded their goods including herbs, seeds and other botanical knowledge they had with the French mountain men and fur traders who had begun to arrive in Shoshone and Crow territory (part of which included the valley of the Grand Teton mountains) during the early 19th century. The French in turn shared their knowledge of European botany and European herbal remedies such as the art of herbal infusion (steeping herbs in alcohol, oil or water in order to create medicines) with the Native people and other native tribes of the region.

IanBotanique reflects the sharing of the Shoshone and French traditions. The French advanced and perfected the art of botanical distillation in the process of making perfume, personal care and medicinal products. They originally used the hydrosols (herbal hydrophilic distillates) and also used the essential oils obtained from the distillation process for everything from skincare, medicines to their world famous perfumes and colognes. Hydrosols or “Herbal distillates” are also called "floral waters" and are made by distilling leaves, flowers, fruits, tree bark and other plant parts. Hydrosols have similar therapeutic properties as essential oils. These distilled botanical waters have a similar aroma to the essential oil from the same plant but typically more subtle yet highly concentrated and medicinally effective. This is because the water soluble constituents are only present in the hydrosol and not in the essential oil. These herbal distillates have uses as flavorings, medicine and skincare. Herbal distillates go by many other names including floral water, hydrosol, hydrolate, herbal water and essential water.” (Source: Wikipedia).