Al-Kindi denied the possibility of transmuting base metals into precious metals such as gold and silver, a position that was later attacked by the Persian alchemist and physician Abu Bakr al-Razi ().
One work attributed to al-Kindi, variously known as the Kitāb al-Taraffuq fī l-ʿiṭr ("The Book of Gentleness on Perfume") or the Kitāb Kīmiyāʾ al-ʿiṭr wa-l-taṣʿīdāt ("The Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations"), contains one of the earliest known references to the distillation of wine. The work also describes the distillation process for extracting rose oils, and provides recipes for 107 different kinds of perfumes.