Abstract
In recent years, individual fragrance spray equipment has become very popular. We can spray of aroma preferred by the operator within a certain range. It is useful if we can use the most effective fragrance for individuals to improve work performance or reduce stress. We made a hypothesis preference of fragrance has large effect on performance and reduction of stress. Therefore, it was set a preference of fragrance as a parameter, and the experiment of applying a workload to subjects was conducted. Three essential oils were used: "grapefruits" was preferred by the all subjects, "anise seeds" was hated by the all subjects and "blue gum" was preferred by half of the subjects. Measurement of salivary amylase and heart rate, and evaluation of current moods was conducted. The number of correct answers was almost not effected by preference of fragrances. Indexes of salivary amylase were not also effected by preference of fragrances. In indexes of parasympathetic activity, "grapefruits" were high score although there was no significant difference. In evaluations of mood, "grapefruits" were higher than "anise seeds" about all evaluation items. Consequently, preference of fragrance effected on moods of subjects, though the preference didn't effect significantly on work performance and stress. In addition, we compared between the measurement values by the "like blue gum" group and the "dislike blue gum" group. Therefore, the "like blue gum" group were higher score of workloads than the "dislike blue gum" group, and they also had more positive results in the indexes of stress, parasympathetic activity and sympathetic activity though there are no significant difference. From these investigation, it was revealed the possibility of the preference effect of fragrances, and it's essential to investigate by using more subjects.
