Litsea Cubeba and IFRA: The Limit Is on Citral, Not the Oil
There is no IFRA limit for litsea cubeba oil that you can look up in a table. The IFRA Standards index for the 51st Amendment (30 June 2023) has no entry for the oil, and its entry for citral reads "Restriction 2020." The cap sits on a constituent, citral, and it applies to the finished product. So the amount of litsea oil you may use depends on how much citral is in the particular batch, which a maker can only learn from the supplier's composition data. We publish no such data, and we publish no IFRA certificate, allergen declaration or safety data sheet, so a buyer who intends to sell a product should read this before ordering.
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
Our own Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $12.99
Shop Now →What the IFRA Citral standard says
The IFRA Standard for Citral (Amendment 49, 2020; CAS 5392-40-5, 141-27-5 and 106-26-3; synonyms include neral and geranial) is a restriction. It lists maximum acceptable concentrations in the finished product, by category: 0.11% in Category 1, 0.032% in Category 2, 0.10% in Category 3, 0.60% in Category 4, 0.15% in Categories 5A, 5B and 5C, 0.051% in 5D, 0.35% in Category 6, 0.20% in 7A and 7B, 0.051% in Category 8, 1.2% in Categories 9 and 10A, 4.2% in 10B, 0.051% in 11A and 11B, and no restriction in Category 12. It names dermal sensitisation and systemic toxicity as the endpoints driving risk management. Its implementation dates (10 February 2021 for new creations, 10 February 2022 for existing ones) apply to the supply of fragrance mixtures, not to finished products already in shops.
Which product is in which category comes from IFRA's Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards (30 June 2023). Reading its product list: body lotions are Category 5A; insect repellent applied to the skin is 5A; body sprays are Category 2; fine fragrance is 4; bar soap and body wash are 9; hard surface cleaners and reed diffuser liquid are 10A; candles of all types and dryer sheets are 12. I searched the guidance text and found no entry named for wax melts, so where they fall is a judgement for your consultant, not something I can read off a list.
Two further points from the same guidance. It describes the standards as part of the industry's self-regulating Code of Practice and says that observing them "may not be sufficient to ensure regulatory compliance." And the standards change: IFRA's standards page shows the 51st Amendment as current, with the 52nd in progress (consultation closed 12 June 2026; an end-of-consultation letter dated 31 August 2026). Any figure here is the 2020 text carried in the 51st index, and can differ after the next amendment.
Worked arithmetic: how much oil a citral cap allows
The rule of thumb is simple: maximum oil share = category cap divided by the citral fraction of the oil. The only citral figures I can cite are literature, not ours. Si et al. (2012, Molecules) hydrodistilled fruit oil from eight sites in six Chinese provinces and reported neral plus geranial of 78.7% to 87.4% by GC-MS peak area. Our COA reports no citral, so treat the table as an illustration of scale for an oil in that range, not as a statement about our batch.
| IFRA category (example products) | Citral cap | Max oil share at 78.7% to 87.4% citral | Per 1 oz (about 26.1 g) of base |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 (fine fragrance) | 0.60% | about 0.69% to 0.76% | about 4 drops |
| 5A (body lotion, skin-applied repellent) | 0.15% | about 0.17% to 0.19% | about 1 drop |
| 9 (bar soap, body wash) | 1.2% | about 1.4% to 1.5% | about 8 to 9 drops |
| 10A (reed diffuser liquid, cleaners) | 1.2% | about 1.4% to 1.5% | about 8 to 9 drops |
| 12 (candles, dryer sheets) | no restriction | no citral cap | not limited by this standard |
The last column uses 1 oz of base as about 26.1 g, about 44 mg per drop, from the density on our COA (0.883 g/ml, about 20 drops per ml). One caveat: the drop counts are rounded and for a lotion the base is not pure carrier, so use a scale.
The Category 5A line deserves a plain comment. Our own skin copy says 0.5% to 2%, roughly 3 to 12 drops per ounce. That is 2.6 to 12 times the 5A figure above if the oil is in the literature range. The two numbers answer different questions: our copy is a general home-dilution guide with a patch test, while the IFRA cap is the industry's finished-product limit used when a product is made for sale. If you are selling a leave-on product, the IFRA calculation, not our dilution copy, is the one a regulator or retailer will ask about. The skin basics article explains the patch test.
Three rulebooks that get confused
- IFRA is an industry standard for fragrance ingredients. It limits how much of a material a fragrance mixture may carry, per category. It is not itself a statute, though retailers and brand owners often require it.
- EU law is about labelling, not an amount. The European Commission's page says Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 adds individual labelling for 56 fragrance allergens; a listed allergen must be named in the ingredient list above 0.001% in leave-on products or 0.01% in rinse-off products; from 31 July 2026 non-compliant products may not be placed on the market, and stock already on the market may stay available until 31 July 2028. Citral is among the original 26 allergens (SCCS summary, placed in Annex III by Directive 2003/15/EC); that summary says the 0.01% and 0.001% limits were "a pragmatic administrative decision" because data were insufficient to set thresholds.
- US law is different again. Under 21 CFR 701.3, "fragrance or flavor may be listed as fragrance or flavor" in descending-order ingredient declarations, so individual allergens need not be named. FDA's fragrance page (current as of 28 February 2022) says FDA "does not have the same legal authority to require allergen labeling for cosmetics as for food." The later MoCRA page (content current as of 10 August 2026) lists fragrance allergen labeling among regulations FDA must establish, but gives no deadline or status. The federal agenda entry for RIN 0910-AI90 appears in the Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025 and 2026 editions, so the rule has been on the agenda for several cycles without my being able to confirm publication. Those two FDA pages are not in conflict about the law as it stands: the older one predates MoCRA, the newer one describes a duty not yet carried out.
The same MoCRA page says manufacturers and processors must register facilities and list each marketed product with its ingredients, that responsible persons must keep safety records and report serious adverse events within 15 business days, and that certain small businesses are exempt from registration, listing and good manufacturing practice. The page does not say who counts as small, so check that with a consultant before assuming you are covered.
What to ask any supplier, in writing, before you sell
- A gas chromatography analysis of the batch you are buying, with citral (neral and geranial) as numbers, not "complies."
- An IFRA certificate or statement naming the amendment, and a list of the allergens present above the EU thresholds.
- A safety data sheet, including flash point if you will use it in candles, diffusers or sprays.
- The batch number on the paperwork matching the batch on the bottle.
What we publish is the COA: for batch LICQGCLCCNC003A it shows appearance, smell, relative density 0.883, refractive index 1.483 and optical rotation +10.04 degrees, steam distilled from fruit, best by 04/30/2028. It shows no constituent percentages, no allergen data and no IFRA data, and it covers that batch only. If your product plan needs more, ask us in writing before ordering and keep the answer in writing; we cannot promise a specific document in advance. Our guide to reading a label and GC-MS report explains what to look for when a report does arrive, and the citral article covers the molecule.
For the final calculation, the category choice and the label, the person to hire is a regulatory consultant or cosmetic chemist, and for a product-liability question a product-safety attorney. Candle and soap makers will find the product-specific angles in our technical FAQ.
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $12.99
Shop Now →Sources & Further Reading
- IFRA, 2020. IFRA Standard: Citral (Amendment 49). ifrafragrance.org/standards/IFRA_STD_021.pdf
- IFRA, 2023. Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards, 30 June 2023. ifrafragrance.org guidance PDF
- IFRA, 2023. Index of IFRA Standards, 51st Amendment, 30 June 2023. ifrafragrance.org index PDF
- IFRA. IFRA Standards (current amendment status). ifrafragrance.org/ifra-standards
- Si L et al., 2012. Chemical composition of essential oils of Litsea cubeba harvested from its distribution areas in China. Molecules 17:7057-7066. PMC6268156
- European Commission. Fragrance allergens labelling (Regulation (EU) 2023/1545). single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu
- European Commission, SCCS opinion summary, 2012. Perfume allergies. ec.europa.eu perfume-allergies
- US eCFR, 2026. 21 CFR 701.3, Designation of ingredients. ecfr.gov 21 CFR 701.3
- US FDA, 2022. Fragrances in cosmetics. fda.gov/fragrances-cosmetics
- US FDA, 2026. Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA). fda.gov MoCRA
- reginfo.gov. Unified Agenda entry RIN 0910-AI90. reginfo.gov/0910-AI90