Lavender Scent Reduces Anxiety through Smell Receptors

Traditional medicine has long used aromatic plant-derived compounds such as lavender extract as treatments for anxiety, but how these compounds might work at the neuronal level isn’t fully understood. A team of scientists in Japan has now demonstrated that the smell of the aromatic lavender-derived alcohol, linalool, exerts anxiolytic effects in mice by acting on the same gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptors (GABA A Rs) that respond to the anxiolytic drug benzodiazepam. However, while diaze