Litsea Cubeba and Mood: Two Small Human Studies, Read Closely

Treat "uplifting" as a perfumery word for litsea cubeba oil, not as a finding. On 28 October 2026 the searches described below turned up two small human studies of the oil, both in healthy adults and neither able to say what the oil does to a person's mood in daily life, plus one human study of citral alone and a mouse study that dosed the oil by mouth. This article reads each one for what it did, how many people, and what it could not show.

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What was searched, and when

PubMed, 28 October 2026. The phrase search litsea cubeba anxiety returned no results. The broader search "Litsea cubeba" AND (anxiety OR anxiolytic OR stress OR mood OR depression OR sedative) returned 22, most of them about oxidative stress or other topics; the relevant ones are below. citral AND (anxiety OR anxiolytic) AND (inhalation OR inhaled) returned two. A search for clinical-trial or volunteer studies of the oil returned 11, including a gingivitis toothpaste trial that has nothing to do with mood. A 2022 review of the oil's pharmacology reports no human trials at all (Sivamaruthi et al., 2022). Searches miss things; this is what these terms found, not a claim that nothing else exists.

Study 1: 15 healthy adults, one session, no randomisation

Chaiyasut et al., 2020 (Chiang Mai University; funded by Thai research programmes; no conflicts declared) had 15 healthy volunteers (5 men, 10 women, 13 of them aged 21 to 30) breathe distilled-water vapour from a diffuser for 15 minutes, rest, then breathe vapour of litsea oil for 15 minutes. The oil was steam-distilled by the authors from fruit collected in Mae Hong Son, Thailand. The diffuser concentration is not reported.

MeasureAfter water vapourAfter litsea vapour
Total mood disturbance (POMS 2)18.33-1.53
Tension8.472.80
Salivary cortisol, ng/ml (baseline 1.49)1.040.79

The authors conclude the oil improved overall mood disturbance and lowered cortisol. Read the design before the headline. Water always came first and litsea second, with no counterbalancing, so order, time and expectation are tangled with the oil. Cortisol fell from 1.49 to 1.04 ng/ml during the water phase alone, which is most of the way to the litsea figure. There was no control group, blinding is not described, and as we read the paper no test result is reported for the water-versus-oil comparison; the only p-values reported for mood compare sexes. The authors themselves call for further studies.

Study 2: 30 young women, filter paper near the nose, EEG

Sattayakhom et al., 2021, Molecules (Walailak University) recorded resting EEG in 30 healthy female students, about 21 years old, in three groups of 10 (garlic, litsea cubeba, turmeric). Litsea oil was presented on filter paper at 1:1,000, 1:400, 1:100 and undiluted. Theta, alpha and beta power fell, most in frontal and temporal regions, which the authors describe as a sedative-like pattern. Self-rated "happy" and "serene" scores were higher with litsea and turmeric than with garlic.

What this does not show: the mood comparison is between oils, not against a no-odour condition as we read the paper; only four mood words were rated; ten women per oil is small; and a lower EEG power is a measurement, not a verdict on how anyone feels. The oil here was a commercial Thai sample with alpha-citral 33.36%, beta-citral 26.78% and limonene 20.44%, which is a different composition profile from the first study's oil, and neither describes the oil we sell, whose COA contains no composition data.

Study 3: citral alone, 48 adults, a stress task

Pei et al., 2024, Heliyon (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) randomised 48 adults with elevated anxiety scores to inhale beta-caryophyllene, linalool, citral or odourless jojoba oil (12 each) during a memory task and mental arithmetic. Citral was diluted 1:1 in jojoba and diffused for 20 minutes. Within the citral group, state anxiety on the STAI fell (p < 0.001), and heart rate fell (p < 0.05). But scores fell in every group after the test session, and the differences between groups were not significant; only beta-caryophyllene moved total STAI. The authors note odour concentrations were not strictly controlled and the sample was small. This is a single compound, not litsea oil, and applying it to the oil would be extrapolation.

The mouse study: oral, not inhaled

Chen et al. (2012, Journal of Wood Science) gave ICR mice fruit oil by mouth at 100, 300 and 500 mg/kg daily for 7 days; in an elevated plus maze the treated mice spent more time in the open arms (Chen et al., 2012, as reported in the abstract; we could not read the full methods). Oral dosing of an essential oil in mice says nothing about breathing a few drops of vapour, and we do not advise swallowing the oil.

None of these doses converts to drops

The first study did not report how much oil the diffuser released. The second used filter paper at four dilutions up to undiluted, held near the nose, with three-minute eyes-open and eyes-closed EEG periods and no stated total exposure time. The third used a citral and jojoba mixture in a 1.70 by 1.70 by 1.85 metre booth, and the paper's own table and text disagree on the unit of the measured air concentration (ppb versus ppm). So a reader cannot turn any of them into a number of drops in a home diffuser, and we will not pretend to. If you diffuse litsea for its scent, our own cautions apply: the oil is a recognised skin sensitiser, a heavy hand dominates a room as well as a wrist, and the bottle is not for internal use.

The other-oil trap

A 2023 network meta-analysis of 44 randomised trials with 3,419 patients and ten oils found 17 trials at high risk of bias, 11 unclear and 16 low risk, with I-squared 93.2% for state anxiety and most comparisons rated low or very low certainty (Tan et al., 2023). Litsea cubeba was not one of the ten oils. Whatever those trials show about lavender or bitter orange, they cannot be moved to litsea. The NCCIH likewise reports one stress study of lemon and lavender scents in which lemon improved mood while neither scent changed stress indicators (NCCIH, updated January 2020).

Why this site makes no mood claim

The FDA decides cosmetic versus drug by intended use, including claims on labels and websites, and a fragrance sold with aromatherapy claims such as helping sleep is treated as a drug (FDA, content current as of 09/11/2024). We describe the oil's aroma, as sold: lemon-bright, sweet, a top note. We make no medical claim for it. If you are struggling with anxiety or low mood, a physician or mental-health professional is the right call, not a bottle, and in the United States you can call or text 988 at any hour (988 Lifeline).

If you want to use litsea as a scent, our uses, the diffuser blends and the citral article cover it as a fragrance, and the FAQ covers handling.

Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil bottle

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