English lavender
Meaning of English lavender: One species among many sold as lavender, and the one whose oil is meant when a recipe or a study says lavender.
Definition of English lavender
English lavender is a small woody shrub of the mint family, Lavandula angustifolia, grown for its narrow gray-green leaves and spikes of scented purple flowers. Oil steam-distilled from the flowers is used in perfume, soap and aromatherapy, and the dried flowers flavor food. Despite the name the plant is native to the Mediterranean rather than to England.
Why does the exact species matter?
Lavender is a genus of dozens of species and a great many garden varieties, and the oils they yield are not interchangeable. English lavender gives the sweeter, softer oil used in perfume and in most aromatherapy work. Lavandin, a hybrid between this species and spike lavender, yields far more oil per acre and carries a sharper, camphor-like note, so it dominates the cheaper market. A product labeled simply as lavender may be either, and published work on the plant is comparable only when the species is stated.
What is in the oil?
Two components make up most of it, linalool and linalyl acetate, both light molecules that evaporate readily, which is why the scent carries so far. Smaller amounts of camphor, cineole and other terpenes vary with the species, the growing conditions and the time of harvest, and it is the camphor content that most clearly separates the hybrid from the true species. Perillyl alcohol, a related terpene found in this and other plants, has been examined as an investigational cancer treatment and remains unapproved.
What is it used for?
| Use | Form |
|---|---|
| Aromatherapy and massage | Diluted essential oil |
| Perfume, soap and household scent | Essential oil |
| Cooking and baking | Dried flowers, culinary oil |
| Insect and moth deterrent | Dried flowers, oil |
Its place in aromatherapy rests mainly on reported effects on sleep and anxiety. Studies are small and inconsistent, and the strong smell makes blinding almost impossible, so the evidence stays weaker than the popularity of the plant suggests.
What is known about its safety?
Undiluted essential oil irritates skin and can provoke an allergic rash, and any essential oil is far more concentrated than the plant it came from. Swallowing the oil is a different matter from cooking with the flowers. Reports have linked repeated skin application of lavender and tea tree oils to breast enlargement in boys, which resolved when use stopped, though that evidence rests on case reports alone.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
English lavender oil was used in the aromatherapy arm of the trial.
Good to know
Oils sold as lavender are frequently distilled from lavandin, a higher-yielding hybrid with more camphor, so the species named on a label determines what the product actually contains.
Word origin
Where “English lavender” comes from
The species name angustifolia is Latin for narrow leaved, from angustus, narrow, and folium, leaf; the genus name Lavandula is usually traced to the Latin lavare, to wash.