The botanical catalog
Essential oils
Compare aromas, uses and research.
Are essential oils fatty oils?
The word “oil” in “essential oil” is a misnomer: these aren’t fatty oils like olive or coconut oil. They’re concentrated mixtures of volatile plant compounds, often rich in terpenes and terpenoids.
The evidence map
Research matrix
Reading the matrix
- Names open profiles; cells open evidence.
- Topic arrows open subtopics.
- Counts include subtopics and overlap. They measure research coverage, not effectiveness.
- Percentages describe cited samples. A blank cell means no recorded link.
- Choose a topic to explore its subtopics and papers.
- Links include background research; they do not prove a finished blend works.
Oils with research associations
Compounds linked to these papers
Studies
- Tap a node to open an oil or compound.
- Dashed amber links mark nonvolatile oil fractions.
- Includes catalog and sourced oil links; excludes plant and solvent-extract findings.
Topics describe what the sources discuss. Inspect the material, model and limitations; a linked paper does not establish efficacy or safety of a finished blend.
Plants have been speaking in chemistry for hundreds of millions of years.
Other plants respond to these signals. Humans sense them too.
Plants clearly exchange chemical information with the living world around them. We know humans receive these molecules too, especially through smell. How much of that ancient chemical conversation extends to us is still being worked out.
“Language” is a metaphor for chemical signaling studied in chemical ecology. It does not imply conscious speech.