Their flower is the distinctive aspect of the Lamiaceae, their petals being fused into an upper lip and a lower lip. As to the name Salvia — sage in English —, it is derived from the Latin saluus. However, it may have been Germanic in origin and originally have referred to a different plant.
It is a rather tall (1.3-4 ft), very fragrant, short-lived herbaceous biennial, showing in summer large plumes of pinkish flowers above large, hairy, gray- green, highly aromatic leaves.
The chief reason for widespread cultivation of Salvia sclarea is their aromatic chemicals production. Thus, clary sage is cultivated throughout the Provence, usually at elevations below 3,000 ft.
As a young adult I met this plant twice. It was grown below the village of Courbons, in the Haute Provence, where we visited with our friends, Janine and Bruno Notari, in the early 1960s. Only a few months earlier, I had used, in my laboratory at the CNRS Chemistry of Natural Products Institute, south of Paris, in Gif-sur-Yvette, nuclear magnetic resonance to ascertain the structure of a diterpene molecule, sclareol, present in the essential oil from
this plant, obtained from distillation of the stalk and flowers.
What does it smell like? Paradisical! Let me be more specific. Its attractiveness to perfume designers is from five olfactory characteristics, viz. ambery, herbaceous, camphory, floral, musky. Accordingly, the industrial producer Firmenich commercializes it and numerous retailers sell it at prices of about € 20 for a 50 ml flask.
Salvia sclarea enters chypre perfumes. In the vocabulary of perfumers, the chypre fragrance stands for citrus top notes, floral heart notes and woody, musky base notes. The essentiail oil from Salvia sclarea is used also in fougère perfumes; fougère denotes fresh, aromatic, woody and sometimes slightly sweet notes. A third fragrance family to which Salvia sclarea
contributes is ambery, which stands for woody, resinous and honeyed notes.
Of course, aromatherapists have used it for millennia against a variety of ailments, predominantly for its estrogen-like activity, assistance in regulation of menstrual cycles, and quite a few other benefits.