You hold a bottle giving the full scientific name. Not one word on the label is wrong. And you may still not receive what you think.
This is the summary of the whole of Part Three.
Four ways a correct name can still mislead
Plant part. Cinnamomum cassia can be cassia bark or cassia leaf, two essential oils so different in price and smell that they cannot stand in for each other.
Chemotype. Ocimum basilicum has many varieties, one rich in linalool, another rich in methyl chavicol. The same scientific name, two smells — and that is a genetic difference, not a result of where it is grown.
Extraction method. Cold-pressed Citrus sinensis and distilled Citrus sinensis are two different products, and both carry the correct name.
A common name covering several species. The word tràm on a Vietnamese label can mean cajuput, tea tree, or niaouli. The word bạc hà can mean peppermint or garden mint, with completely different leading compounds.
Four pieces of information that make a complete label
The full scientific name, with the author’s name if the species has many synonyms.
The plant part extracted.
The extraction method.
The growing region, and ideally a lot number with an analysis.
Only these four together identify a product. Without any one of them, the remaining name could point to several different things.
Why the trade has not standardised
There is no technical reason. All four pieces of information are easy to record, and sellers all know them.
The reason is that the market has not demanded it. As long as buyers decide on the words one hundred per cent pure, recording everything only clutters the label without selling a single extra bottle.
This changes when enough buyers start asking the four questions above. That is the whole reason Parts Three and Four exist on this site.
Read on
Part Four moves from understanding origins to detecting fraud — four levels, ordered by difficulty, and the point at which our own methods run out.