It is present in chicory and in many toxic and medicinal plants, in form of glycosides and caffeic acid conjugates.

[3] The sodium salt of its methyl-derivative is used in dermatology for the treatment of varicose veins.

[5] Aesculin, the glucoside of aesculetin, will fluoresce under long wave ultraviolet light (360 nm).

Aesculetin has the ability to quench the inner fluorescence of bovine serum albumin.

[6] Aesculetin can be transformed into scopoletin (7-hydroxy-6-methoxycoumarin) and isoscopoletin (6-hydroxy-7-methoxycoumarin) through incubation with rat liver catechol-O-methyltransferase.