This is the best summary I could come up with:

Now scientists have identified the compounds in the balms used to mummify the organs of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman, according to a recent paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggesting that the recipes were unusually complex and used ingredients not native to the region.

“'The scent of eternity’ represents more than just the aroma of the mummification process,” said Huber, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.

As previously reported, Egyptian embalming is thought to have started in the Predynastic Period or even earlier, when people noticed that the arid heat of the sand tended to dry and preserve bodies buried in the desert.

When people began to bury the dead in rock tombs, away from the desiccating sand, they used chemicals like natron salt and plant-based resins for embalming.

In addition to a text called The Ritual of Embalming, Greek historian Herodotus, in his Histories, mentions the use of natron to dehydrate the body.

Science can help fill in the gaps, particularly given the expanding array of methods for conducting biomolecular analysis, including various forms of gas chromatography.

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