It's great to have a wealth of components for formulas/recipes/enchantments/potions. It's even greater with a comprehensive in-game help function.
1) There should be a list of known formulas that is always accessible, so players can check which options they have and which components they should be looking for. Numbers for components you have might be highlighted in green, numbers for those you don't have might be highlighted in red.
2) When placing the mouse over a component, a tooltip might list the known formulas it is used in, so players quickly know how useful it (currently) is. This should work both in the inventory and in the trading screen.
Combined, this would make it quite convenient to use the whole system. And these are just the basics. If you want to get fancy, you can
3) add tick boxes to the list of formulas - if ticked, players won't use the corresponding formula (anymore) and don't want it to show up in the tooltips.
4) enable accessing the list of formulas in the trading screen, and clicking on a formula lets you buy all components for one use (shift-clicking might let you buy only the components you are still missing for one use).
5) add general tooltip infos for unknown formulas depending on your alchemy [or other appropriate] skill, like "Used for brewing powerful healing potions" or "Used for enchantments providing additional fire protection".
