Stories of how this powerful remedy came into public knowledge can vary wildly, with some linking the oil to 14^th century Toulouse and others to 17^th century Marseille.

Whatever the truth may be, the folklore behind this oil is fascinating, and there’s no disputing the significant benefits it still holds for our health all these years later – however many years later that actually is.

The story

The most popular version of the story begins in the 1300s, an era in which Europe and Asia were ravaged by bubonic plague.

With the population dwindling and the streets emptying, making an honest living became more difficult, and so an enterprising group of bandits decided to use the situation to their advantage and began robbing the dead and dying.

The plague was known to be incredibly contagious, and so these bandits came up with an ingenious way to protect themselves from the disease.

They would infuse a vinegar with various herbs and spices that they would then wear on their skin to help guard against infection.

It’s important to understand here that the 14^th century understanding of infection was very flawed.

The popular theory at the time was that the disease rotted you from the inside. If pieces of rot from a dead or dying person became airborne and entered your body through the nose or mouth, you too would begin to rot from the inside which would lead the plague to kill you.

Medieval medicine had no understanding of germs.

The bandits were attempting to prevent these bits of rotting matter from entering their airways by surrounding themselves with a much stronger smell, protecting themselves from smelling the rot.

It was thought that the rot would then not enter the airways because the stronger smell would keep it out.

This became such a popular solution that cities began paying to have entire streets fumigated with strong herbal scents.

The oil worked, but not because of its strong scent.

The bandits had unwittingly picked many ingredients with antibacterial, immune-guarding, and insect-repellent properties – this last is particularly important, as the plague was transmitted by fleas.

Whilst they thought that their invention was protecting them with its strong scent, it was actually hard at work combatting the microbes that were attempting to infect their bodies.

Most versions of the story agree that the bandits were eventually caught. Some say that their oil was so valuable that they were able to give up the recipe to avoid being executed.

Others say that they were caught quite early on and made to bury dead plague victims as a punishment. In this version, the oil protected them from death.

It’s hard to verify any of these versions. What we do know, however, is that this isn’t the only time in history that stories of four bandits oil have appeared.

A similar mixture can be traced back all the way to the era of Hippocrates, and various versions of the herb-infused oil or vinegar appear throughout the following centuries.

Today, many households still use four bandits oil to guard against infection.