How to Find the INCI Name of a Plant-Derived Ingredient

Type “peppermint oil INCI name” or “watermelon extract INCI name” into a search engine and the results rarely agree, because plant-ingredient INCI names are not simple translations of a common name into Latin. They are built from a fixed set of parts: the genus, the species, the plant part used, and the preparation applied to it. Change any one of those and the correct INCI name changes with it. This article sets out that pattern and works through five plant-derived names and two non-botanical ones, each checked against cosingchecker.com’s own CosIng-sourced inventory and EU INCI glossary data. A companion article, cosingchecker.com/blogs/what-is-an-inci-name-and-who-assigns-it/, covers who assigns INCI names and how EU law adopted them; this one stays on how botanical names are built.

The botanical pattern: genus, species, part, preparation

A plant-derived INCI name is assembled from up to four elements, in order: the Latin binomial genus and species (for example Mentha piperita), an optional common name, the part of the plant used, and the preparation term. The International Cosmetic Ingredient Nomenclature Committee’s own reference, INCIPedia, gives Bambusa Vulgaris Leaf/Stem Extract as a worked illustration: genus Bambusa, species vulgaris, two plant parts joined by a slash, and the preparation term Extract at the end. Preparation terms in routine use include Oil, Extract, Juice, Water, Butter, Wax and Powder, and each one names a materially different substance, not a stylistic variant.

INCIPedia also states a rule worth flagging directly, because it explains why the same plant can look like it has two different names depending on where you read it: the common name in parentheses, as in Mentha Piperita (Peppermint), comes from US labelling practice under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and in INCIpedia's words “The parenthetical English common name is omitted for the labeling of INCI names in the EU.” Checking cosingchecker.com’s own inventory and INCI glossary for a run of common botanicals — Mentha Piperita Oil, Calendula Officinalis Flower Oil, Citrullus Lanatus Fruit Extract, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter and Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil — none of them carry a parenthetical common name in the records the site holds; the Latin binomial stands alone. A name written as “Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil” on a US-facing supplier document and “Mentha Piperita Oil” on an EU label are the same ingredient in two labelling conventions, not two different substances.

Why plant part and preparation are not optional

Search interest tends to collapse a plant down to one generic name, such as “calendula oil,” but the site’s inventory shows why that shortcut fails: there is no ingredient record for “Calendula Oil” as such. At least four distinct, non-interchangeable INCI names sit under the Calendula officinalis genus and species alone, each defined by a different part or preparation:

• Calendula Officinalis Flower Oil — the oil derived from the flowers
• Calendula Officinalis Seed Oil — the oil expressed from the seeds
• Calendula Officinalis Flower Water — the aqueous steam distillate of the flowers
• Calendula Officinalis Flower/Leaf/Stem Juice — the juice expressed from flowers, leaves and stems

Writing down “calendula oil” without checking which of these preparations is in the batch documentation is guessing at an identity, not confirming one. The same pattern holds for peppermint, which appears in the site’s data as leaf, flower/leaf, flower/leaf/stem and whole-plant preparations, each grouping carrying some combination of oil, extract, water or juice records (there is no leaf oil, for instance), and each a separate CosIng entry rather than a variant of one master name.

Essential oils vs fragrance declared as parfum

An essential oil pressed or distilled from a named plant keeps its full botanical INCI name on the label — Mentha Piperita Oil, for instance. That is different from a fragrance or perfume composition, which Article 19(1)(g) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 allows to be declared collectively using the term “parfum” or “aroma” rather than by naming every raw material in it. Substances that Annex III of the Regulation requires to be named individually — chiefly a defined list of fragrance allergens — still have to appear separately in the ingredient list when present above the Annex III thresholds (0.001% in leave-on products, 0.01% in rinse-off products), even when the rest of the composition is declared as parfum; cosingchecker.com/blogs/eu-fragrance-allergens-cosmetics-2026-labeling/ covers that allergen list. The point for botanical naming is narrower: an essential oil sold and used as itself carries a genus-species-part-preparation name, while the same oil blended into an undisclosed perfume composition can disappear from the label into the single word “parfum.”

Worked examples, checked against the site’s data

Peppermint essential oil

“Peppermint essential oil” and “peppermint oil” both resolve to Mentha Piperita Oil in cosingchecker.com’s inventory (record 84257) and INCI glossary (entry 16219). The record describes it as “the volatile oil obtained from the whole plant of the Peppermint, Mentha piperita (L.), Labiatae.” The same plant also has separate flower/leaf/stem and flower/leaf oil records — Mentha Piperita Flower/Leaf/Stem Oil and Mentha Piperita Flower/Leaf Oil — which are not the same INCI name as Mentha Piperita Oil even though all three are peppermint oils; the plant-part element is what distinguishes them.

Calendula oil

“Calendula oil” has no single INCI answer. The inventory holds Calendula Officinalis Flower Oil (record 74930, “the oil derived from the flowers”) and Calendula Officinalis Seed Oil (record 55194, “the oil expressed from the seeds”) as two separate entries, and only the supplier documentation for a specific batch says which one is meant.

Centella Asiatica extract

Centella Asiatica Extract is a direct match in both the inventory and the INCI glossary (entry 5725), described as the extract of the whole plant Centella asiatica. Related but distinct records exist for named plant parts, including Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract and Centella Asiatica Root Extract, and for the hydrolyzed form, Hydrolyzed Centella Asiatica Extract. None of these four is interchangeable with Centella Asiatica Extract on a label.

Watermelon extract

“Watermelon extract” is a common name, not an INCI name, and no record in the inventory or glossary is literally titled that. The botanical name is Citrullus Lanatus Fruit Extract, confirmed in both the inventory and the INCI glossary (entry 6630), described as “an extract of the fruit of the Watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, Cucurbitaceae.” Watermelon-derived esters are on file separately, for example Watermelon Seed Oil PEG-8 Esters, which keeps the English common name “Watermelon” rather than the Latin binomial because it names a processed derivative rather than a straight botanical extract.

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice is a direct match in both the inventory and the INCI glossary (entry 1444). It should not be substituted for the related but distinct records Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract or Hydrolyzed Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice; each is prepared differently and is its own INCI entry.

Two non-botanical names people also search: tallow and alcohol

Not every INCI search is botanical. Two animal- and process-derived names turn up constantly alongside plant ones. Tallow itself is a direct match: TALLOW is on file in both the inventory (record 92469) and the INCI glossary (entry 28235), with the inventory record listing the synonyms Adeps Bovis, Beef Tallow and Mutton Tallow. It sits alongside more than 150 other names containing the word TALLOW in the site’s data, from Acetylated Hydrogenated Tallow Glyceride to Hydrogenated Tallow Alcohol, each a distinct derivative with its own INCI entry rather than a variant spelling of plain Tallow.

Alcohol is more often a labelling trap than a naming one. ALCOHOL and ALCOHOL DENAT. are two separate entries in cosingchecker.com’s INCI glossary (entries 1290 and 1291): the first covers undenatured ethanol, the second covers ethanol that has been deliberately denatured. cosingchecker.com/blogs/alcohols-in-cosmetics-guide/ covers what denaturants do and why the distinction matters for formulation and labelling; the naming point here is only that ALCOHOL and ALCOHOL DENAT. are two separate, non-interchangeable INCI entries, not two ways of writing the same ingredient.

Checking a name yourself

The fastest way to confirm any of the names above, or a different one, is to search it directly rather than rely on a summary. cosingchecker.com/search/ looks up ingredient and INCI records by name or fragment; cosingchecker.com/inci-glossary/ is the EU common-name glossary on its own, useful when the exact wording of the official glossary entry is what matters; and cosingchecker.com/checker/ runs a submitted ingredient list against the site’s EU rule data. A returned record confirms that a name exists and how it is defined; it does not confirm that the substance is permitted in a given product type or concentration, and no record returned by any of these tools is a safety or legal verdict. Where a name does not appear in the results, that means the name is absent from the data cosingchecker.com currently holds, not that the substance is unregulated or prohibited.

Sources

• Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, Article 19 (ingredient list; parfum/aroma declaration) — https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1223/oj
• Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, Annex III (substances requiring individual declaration alongside parfum/aroma) — https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1223/oj
• Personal Care Products Council, INCIPedia — INCI naming conventions (botanical pattern, plant-part and preparation terms, parenthetical common name for U.S. labeling) — https://incipedia.personalcarecouncil.org/conventions/