Studying the scent of the jasmine flower, Hanns Hatt and his colleagues at Heinrich Hane University in Susseldorf have found that it has the same effect as certain sedatives and anesthetics: it relieves anxiety and indexes sleep .
At the brain level, this odor acts on the synapse between neurons, increasing the effect of a natural inhibitory neurotransmitter called GABA . And the most surprising thing is that using the scent of jasmine the German scientists obtained a sedative effect five times more powerful than with barbiturates.
On the contrary, the smell of mint , as the American researcher Bryan Raudenbush has found, increases alertness, attention to detail, working memory, motivation and mood, all at the same time. It reduces fatigue and frustration.
