Printed from smellbook.com/smells/sage. This printout keeps the entry for Sage itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A dry aromatic herb smell with green, earthy and softly camphoraceous associations.
Its type, Source, means the smell is named after “a physical origin that can contribute a smell”; it is not an evidence source, such as a study or a book. The origin page for Sage (the plant, not this smell entry) lists every smell recorded as coming from it.
Sage smells dry, green and earthy, with a soft, slightly cooling herbal edge and a faintly dusty texture. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
Links SmellBook records for this entry: what it comes from, where you meet it, molecules, related smells and comparisons. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT SAGE
Sage smells dry, green and earthy, with a soft, slightly cooling herbal edge and a faintly dusty texture. Fresh leaves are mellow and velvety, while dried sage turns sharper and more pungent. When cooked in butter or with roasts, the smell becomes warmer and savoury, close to thyme or a mixed herb blend.
It is met in herb gardens, kitchens and spice jars, in bunches of dried herbs, and in dishes where the leaves are cooked in butter or oil, roasted with meat or vegetables, or added to stuffings, sauces and pasta. Many cooks know it from slow, warming meals in cooler weather.
Typical settings: herb garden, kitchen, dried herbs.
SmellBook links it to 2 place pages: see them in Connections.
2 VERIFIED scientific claims from 2 published sources are recorded for this entry: Thujone, camphor and cineole in sage oil and Key aroma compounds of fresh sage leaves and what drying removes. Each claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
6 molecules are named in these claims; see the evidence for the role each claim gives them. Each molecule these claims name has only the role its claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell.
Sage is presented as a sensory herb profile, not as a medicinal or ritual-health claim.
SmellBook records one written comparison with other smells: see it in Connections.
Words that are easy to mix up: What is the difference between earthy and mineral? and How do green and herbal differ?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 2 claims
Conditions or places studied
Thujone, camphor and cineole in sage oil
Essential oil of wild and cultivated sage was dominated by cis-thujone, camphor and 1,8-cineole, in proportions that differed between wild and cultivated plants.
Salvia officinalis oils from one study; composition, not odour potency, and growing conditions such as shading shift the proportions.
Also covers: chemistry reported (the claim names compounds or kinds of compounds).
How this was found: Chemical composition. Compounds were identified or measured, without any assessment of their odour. Source: primary study; chemistry work.
Zoran S. Ilić, Žarko Kevrešan, Ljubomir Šunić, Ljiljana Stanojević, Lidija Milenković, Jelena Stanojević, Aleksandra Milenković & Dragan Cvetković
DOI 10.3390/horticulturae9060624Key aroma compounds of fresh sage leaves and what drying removes
In fresh leaves of garden sage, aroma extract dilution analysis characterised 39 aroma-active compounds, with (Z)-3-hexenal, 1,8-cineol, borneol and eugenol at the highest flavour dilution factors, and a mixture of 22 key compounds mimicked the overall aroma; on drying at 50 °C, (Z)-3-hexenal, phenylacetaldehyde and 3-(methylthio)propanal were almost totally lost while monoterpenes stayed nearly unchanged, and the laboratory-dried leaves were rated as having the most typical sage aroma, unlike six commercial samples.
Leaves of one Italian garden sage grown in a German greenhouse and dried in the laboratory; commercial dried sage differed again.
Also covers: chemistry reported (the claim names compounds or kinds of compounds).
How this was found: Odour analysis with human assessors. People smelled the separated compounds or the material itself (for example gas chromatography–olfactometry, dilution analysis, recombination or a sensory panel). Source: primary study; sensory or perception work. Studied: fresh and laboratory-dried leaves of one garden sage, by dilution analysis and a recombined aroma.
Michaela Jonas & Peter Schieberle
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
DOI 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c01275Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. Each molecule named here has only the role its claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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MAP THIS SMELL
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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IN FRAGRANCE & SPACES
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Sage.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0130 — Sagesmellbook:smell:sagehttps://smellbook.com/smells/sageSmellBook. (2026). Sage (revision 4, 2026-10-14). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:sage. https://smellbook.com/smells/sage@misc{smellbook_sage_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Sage},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-14, smellbook:smell:sage},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/sage}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-sage-r4 TI - Sage AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/14 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/sage N1 - SB-0130; smellbook:smell:sage; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/sage ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-14, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Sage is presented as a sensory herb profile, not as a medicinal or ritual-health claim.
Added VERIFIED evidence through source intake.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-14Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30.
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗