Title

Therapeutic potential of flower fragrance diffusion on heart rate variability among hospitalized patients

Authors

Gurleen Kaur¹, Yogesh Kumar², S. Nirangjhana*^,3, Vishnu Shankar Ojha¹ & Ratandeep Biswas¹

Affiliation

¹All India Institute of Medical Sciences Patna, India; ²Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Patna, India; ³Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Patna, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Gurleen Kaur - E-mail: doc19.gurleenkaur@gmail.com
Yogesh Kumar - E-mail: dryogeshk@aiimspatna.org
S. Nirangjhana - E-mail: snirangjhana@gmail.com
Vishnu Shankar Ojha - E-mail: vsojha12@gmail.com

Ratandeep Biswas - E-mail: ratnadeepbis2404@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received November 15, 2025; Revised December 15, 2025; Accepted December 15, 2025, Published December 15, 2025

Abstract

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a non-invasive measure of autonomic nervous system activity and may be influenced by environmental odors. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the effect of flower fragrance diffusion on HRV in hospitalized patients. Thirty adults admitted to obstetrics and chemotherapy wards underwent baseline HRV assessment, 60-minute flower fragrance exposure and post-intervention HRV recording. Hedonic responses were rated on an 11-point scale pre- and post-exposure. Fragrance diffusion significantly increased HRV parameters including SDNN (p<0.05), rMSSD (p<0.01) and pNN50 (p<0.001), with improved hedonic ratings (p<0.001). Hedonic responses were positively correlated with HRV (r=0.42, p<0.01), suggesting flower fragrance diffusion favorably modulates HRV and emotional responses, suggesting potential benefit as a supportive intervention in clinical wards.

Keywords

Aromatherapy, floral fragrance, heart rate variability, hedonic perception

Citation

Kaur et al. Bioinformation 21(12): 4324-4328 (2025)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.