Purchasing the Alchemy technology will decrease the likelihood of an alchemy experiment to fail. The villagers also need to solve The Alchemy Lab puzzle in order to initiate any alchemy activity.
Alchemy experiment failure will produce an audible "whoosh!" sound, and the villager will sit on the ground and shake their head next to the pot. Experiment failure will substantially decrease the health of the villager cooking. If the villager is already very weak, the failure may kill the villager, with their death listed on the roster of the dead as "workplace accident."
Herbs[]
These are the ingredients for making potions. Each combination gives a different result.