Aromatherapy
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40 free Aromatherapy trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Aromatherapy sits where gardening, chemistry and the perfume trade meet. Every bottle of essential oil starts as a plant: a flower, a leaf, a resin or a piece of bark that has been distilled, pressed or washed with solvents to capture its scent. The stories behind those bottles run from temple incense and medieval stills to a twentieth-century book that gave the practice its name. This quiz covers the best-known oils and where they come from, how they are extracted and blended, the people and places that shaped the craft, and the safety points every beginner should know. It also looks at the sense of smell itself, including why a scent can call up a memory so quickly, and at what research does and does not support. The questions suit anyone who uses a diffuser at home, students working towards a massage or spa qualification, and quiz hosts looking for a wellness round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you guess.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which sour citrus fruit, grown on a large scale in Calabria in Italy, gives Earl Grey tea its flavour?
Bergamot
Bergamot is so tied to Reggio di Calabria that the fruit has become a symbol of the entire city. Its aromatic oil also flavours Turkish delight.
Q 02Which aromatic resin from Boswellia trees of Somalia and Oman was one of the three gifts of the Magi?
Frankincense
Frankincense is harvested so heavily that researchers warn every Boswellia species is threatened by overexploitation and habitat loss.
Q 03Which conifer's berry-like cones are distilled for aromatherapy oil and also give gin its distinctive flavour?
Juniper
Juniper cones flavour gin while they are fully grown but still unripe, whereas cooks usually prefer the mature, dark berries.
Q 04Which tree, whose leaves make up most of a koala's diet, yields an essential oil rich in cineole?
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus leaves are low in nutrition and contain toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on them.
Q 05Wintergreen oil is about 98% methyl salicylate, a close chemical relative of which common painkiller?
Aspirin
Aspirin is such a close cousin that one millilitre of wintergreen oil equals almost six regular-strength adult tablets, which makes swallowing the oil dangerous.
Q 06Thieves oil blends recall a legend in which a herbal vinegar shielded four robbers from which disease?
Plague
Plague protection made four thieves vinegar famous: in the usual story, robbers caught looting the dead and the sick traded their secret recipe for leniency.
Q 07German chamomile oil takes which unexpected colour from a compound formed during distillation?
Blue
Blue is absent from the living flower: the pigment chamazulene forms only when a compound called matricin breaks down in the still, which is why the plant is nicknamed blue chamomile.
Q 08Which oil from a bushy herb of the mint family surged in popularity with the hippie movement of the 1960s?
Patchouli
Patchouli even scented a toy: in 1985 Mattel mixed the oil into the plastic of Stinkor, a Masters of the Universe action figure.
Q 09Many citrus essential oils are best kept off exposed skin because they increase its vulnerability to what?
Sunlight
Sunlight activates compounds called furanocoumarins in the oils, and the exposed skin can redden, burn and blister within a day or two.
Q 10Which French novelist's name is attached to the way a smell can suddenly revive vivid memories?
Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust wrote in his novel Swann's Way of the taste and smell of a madeleine dipped in linden tea bringing back vivid recollections of the past.
Q 11Which herb, a classic filling for linen sachets, yields an oil rich in linalool?
Lavender
Lavender oil is steam-distilled from blooms harvested between late June and August, and like every essential oil it is a complex mixture, not one pure compound.
Q 12Which compound in peppermint oil triggers the skin's cold-sensitive receptors, producing a cooling sensation?
Menthol
Menthol works by chemically triggering TRPM8, the receptors that normally sense cold, so the chill is felt whether it is inhaled, eaten or rubbed on.
Q 13Which spice yields an essential oil, rich in eugenol, that is a traditional remedy for toothache?
Clove
Clove oil dabbed into a cavity in a decayed tooth may relieve the ache for a while, and the same oil flavours tea and toothpaste.
Q 21Which so-called oil, from the seeds of a shrub native to Arizona and Mexico, is chemically a liquid wax?
Jojoba
Jojoba is about 97% wax esters, with only a tiny fraction of the triglycerides found in true vegetable oils, though it pours just like one.
Q 22Which French chemist coined the word aromatherapy and made it the title of his 1937 book?
René-Maurice Gattefossé
René-Maurice Gattefossé titled his book Aromathérapie, and its subtitle went further, describing essential oils as plant hormones.
Q 23Which Persian author of The Canon of Medicine is often credited with distilling rose essence using steam?
Avicenna
Q 14Which oil from Melaleuca alternifolia leaves has been produced commercially in Australia since the 1920s?
Tea tree
Tea tree oil is strictly for external use: it is poisonous if swallowed, and in Australia it is among the oils behind poisonings, mostly of children.
Q 15Which grass-derived oil has been registered in the United States as a plant-based insect repellent since 1948?
Citronella
Citronella is best known from outdoor candles, yet the candles themselves are not effective at repelling the mosquitoes that spread dengue fever.
Q 16Which German city gave its name to the light citrus perfume launched there by Giovanni Maria Farina in 1709?
Cologne
Cologne owes its famous export to an Italian: Farina came from Santa Maria Maggiore, and his secret formula has been made in the German city ever since.
Q 17Unlike an essential amino acid, an essential oil is named for carrying what characteristic of its source plant?
Its fragrance
Its fragrance is the 'essence' the name refers to, the characteristic smell released when the plant is crushed or put through a steam process.
Q 18Essential oils are also called volatile oils because their aroma compounds readily do what at room temperature?
Evaporate
Evaporate quickly is what volatile means in chemistry: rubbing alcohol vanishes in moments, while a low-volatility liquid such as cooking oil stays put.
Q 19In a perfume or essential oil blend, which name is given to the light scents sensed first, which fade fastest?
Top notes
Top notes are made of small, light molecules, so they are sensed the moment a blend is applied, while some base notes linger for more than a day.
Q 20What name is given to a vegetable oil, such as sweet almond, used to dilute essential oils for massage?
Carrier oil
Carrier oil is also known as base oil, and the true ones are generally cold-pressed or macerated vegetable oils, picked partly for how thick they feel.
Avicenna, known in Persian as Ibn Sina, is said to have used the rose oil he distilled in treatments for heart conditions.
Q 24Which ancient people made kyphi, a compound incense with recipes inscribed on temple walls at Edfu and Philae?
Egyptians
Egyptians used kyphi for both religious and medical purposes, and the priest Manetho is said to have written a whole treatise on preparing it.
Q 25Which French Riviera town is the centre of France's perfume industry and styled the world's perfume capital?
Grasse
Grasse was a leather-tanning town first: its makers began scenting gloves to mask the smell of the hides, and perfume outlived the leather trade.
Q 26Which country's Rose Valley, centred on the town of Kazanlak, has supplied rose oil to perfumers for centuries?
Bulgaria
Bulgaria won European protected status for its rose oil in 2014, and the valley holds festivals celebrating the roses and their oil every year.
Q 27Which tropical tree, known by a Tagalog name, bears yellow flowers that yield a widely used perfume oil?
Ylang-ylang
Ylang-ylang is the Spanish spelling of the tree's Tagalog name, ilang-ilang, and in the Philippines its flowers are strung into necklaces.
Q 28Neroli oil, named after a princess of Nerola who scented her gloves with it, comes from which tree's blossom?
Bitter orange
Bitter orange blossom became fashionable in the late 17th century, when Anne Marie Orsini, princess of Nerola, used it to perfume her gloves and her bath.
Q 29Which scented wood, long produced in southern India, needs trees at least 15 years old to yield valuable oil?
Sandalwood
Sandalwood powder is sprinkled over the giant Gommateshwara statue during a festival held only once every 12 years.
Q 30Which Mediterranean herb do mourners toss into graves as a symbol of remembrance for the dead?
Rosemary
Rosemary has an aroma of pine, and several Shakespeare plays refer to its use in burial and memorial rites.