Lavender is more than just an aromatic plant. Studies suggest it may help relieve stress, chronic pain, high blood pressure, and asthma.

Lavender is also grown for the production of its essential oil, which comes from the distillation of the flower spikes of certain lavender species. The oil has cosmetic uses, and it is believed to have some medicinal uses. Lavender essential oil, in contrast to the plant form, is toxic when swallowed.

Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, southwest Asia to India.

Many members of the genus are cultivated extensively in temperate climates as ornamental plants for garden and landscape use, for use as culinary herbs, and also commercially for the extraction of essential oils.

Despite its use over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics, there is no high-quality clinical evidence that lavender has any effects on diseases or improves health.

The genus includes annual or short-lived herbaceous perennial plants, and shrub-like perennials, subshrubs or small shrubs.