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Absinthe is derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (grand wormwood), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. The principal botanicals are grande wormwood, green anise and florence fennel, which are often called "the holy trinity". Many other herbs may be used as well, such as petite wormwood, hyssop, melissa, star anise, angelica, peppermint, coriander and veronica.

Traditional absinthes get their green colour strictly from the chlorophyll in whole herbs, extracted during the secondary maceration. Steeping plants such as petite wormwood, hyssop and melissa in the distillate extracts chlorophyll, and this step also adds the herbal complexity typical of high-quality absinthe. Most countries have no legal definition of absinthe.

Wormwood herb contains bitter substances from the group of sesquiterpene lactones, of which absinthin is the main component. Essential oils make up 0.2 to 0.8% of the herb and contain (-)-thujone, (+)-isothujone, thujyl alcohol and its esters, chamazulene and other mono- and sesquiterpenes. Thujone is a ketone and a monoterpene that occurs predominantly in two diastereomeric forms, (-)-α-thujone and (+)-β-thujone. Chamazulene, a blue-violet derivative of azulene, is found in wormwood.

Anethole contributes a large component of the odor and flavor of anise and fennel. It is only slightly soluble in water but highly soluble in ethanol, which makes certain anise-flavoured liqueurs turn cloudy when diluted with water.

Flavour uses

Wormwood oil is used to flavour alcoholic beverages such as vermouth, a blend of white wines containing traces of absinthium and other flavours, and it was formerly used in absinthe. Anethole flavours the alcoholic drinks ouzo, rakı, anisette and absinthe, among others. Anethole itself is a colorless, fragrant, mildly volatile liquid.

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