Q. How do you classify essential oils?

Can I just say   On chemistry, mathematics and intuition.  The aromas defy every effort at classification (if they didnt they would not be so potent).  Still science is increasingly on the case and perhaps one day the mathematical beauty of the aromas and their many effects on the individual will be set out in visual artistic terms for all to see and admire in the same way as we admire flowers and fruit the other half of the construct. In the meantime we have the pictures of the plant which is beauty enough.

With 600 active smell receptor genes thats (at least) 600! (shriek, 600x599x598 etc) mathematical possibilities of mental let alone cellular perception beyond relaxing and stimulatiing.  Somehow certain plant families navigated their way through that to provide us in evolutionary terms with aromatic materials that would do us good and which we would find visually and even emotionally pleasing while at the same time providing a differant visual and fruit protocol to insects .  That really is amazing.

Intuition is important too in making sense of this complex psychological landscape of the individual meeting the complex psychological landscape of the oil. Valerie Worwood had a good go at this. The 'bubbles' and 'crunches' in the chinese meridians may not come naturally to western minds but they are an excellent diagnostic tool.

Essentia