Our Method
WikiAromatics is a documentary publication on aromatic plants and essential oils, signed collectively; it is not a collaborative encyclopedia. The rules below are the ones every page must meet, and the site is being revised to them. The first of them: every factual statement must rest on a primary source.
Who writes WikiAromatics?
The pages are signed collectively: WikiAromatics. The site names no individual author and claims no professional title.
Which sources does WikiAromatics accept?
The site accepts the following sources, and only these:
- Botany: Plants of the World Online (POWO), IPNI and WCVP — Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- Scientific literature: peer-reviewed publications.
- Pharmacopoeias: the European Pharmacopoeia and the French Pharmacopoeia (ANSM).
- Standards: ISO and AFNOR standards for essential oils.
- Regulation and assessment: the IFRA Standards, Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and the CosIng database, ECHA, EFSA, ANSES, EMA, and the official text of EU regulations as published by the Publications Office of the European Union.
- Conservation: the IUCN Red List and CITES.
Not accepted, without exception: Wikipedia, blogs, commercial and brand websites, content aggregators, and the output of artificial intelligence.
How must each fact be tied to its source?
Each fact is to be recorded first in a fact sheet, with a word-for-word quotation of its source and the place where it appears. The quotations are then reread on their own, without the statements they are meant to support. A page is to be written from the validated fact sheet only, each factual sentence carrying the identifier of its fact.
What happens when no source is found?
Nothing may be filled in by plausibility. A figure, a composition, an origin or a botanical detail that no primary source supports is marked as missing, not completed. Botanical names must be checked against POWO, with the author of the taxon, and with the chemotype and the distilled plant part where they matter: confusing two species or two chemotypes is treated as a safety error.
Does WikiAromatics give medical advice?
No. WikiAromatics is a documentary resource: it covers botany, chemistry, extraction, quality, regulation and documented hazards. It gives no medical advice, makes no therapeutic claim and gives no instructions for use — no dilution applied to a person, no number of drops, no duration, frequency or route of administration. Regulatory texts are reported, never interpreted as advice.
How do the English and French versions relate?
No subject is to exist in one language without its equivalent published in the other. The French version cites the same sources; it is not a machine translation, and regulatory mentions are adapted where the legal framework differs.