Chemical and sensory evaluation of three lavender essential oils according to their origin and production mode

Lavender is one of the best world-known and used plant to produce essential oil for fragrance. The olfactory characteristics differ depending on the origin, and it evaluation was affected by the analysis methods used. In this study, a chromatographic analysis coupled with a sensory analysis realized with naive panelists, were conducted to evaluate the attractiveness and complexity of three essential oils obtained with three types of lavenders, characterized by variety and origin. The chemical composition is not always consistent with the choice of appreciation of naive users facing a sensory evaluation exercise, and sometimes they did not manage to apprehend all the subtleties of each essential oil. The Maillette lavender presents a good complexity, especially with high contents of linalool and linalyl acetate, remains the favorite of a panel of 100 naive young people, compared to an essential oil resulting from a lavandin, a fragrance used in industry, and an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée – controlled designation of origin) lavender, which is very appreciated by the perfumers.