Litsea Cubeba, Pregnancy and Children: What Is Published

For pregnancy, breastfeeding, babies and children, the person who can answer a question about litsea cubeba oil is an obstetric clinician, midwife, pharmacist or paediatrician, not a shop. None of the guidance read for this article names litsea cubeba, so there is no published use level for these groups that we can pass on, and our own copy says to keep the oil away from children. What we can do is report what the authorities do say, with dates, and show you how to sort your question.

Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil bottle

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First question: diffuser, skin, or swallowing?

These three have different evidence and different worst cases, and answers about one do not carry over to the others. A diffuser question is about air; a skin question is about dilution, allergy and absorption; a swallowing question is a poison-control call, not an article. Decide which one you have before reading further.

Pregnancy: what is actually published

The clearest dated statement we fetched is an NHS Borders midwifery guideline (version 2, reviewed 30 September 2024). It advises avoiding aromatherapy in the first trimester because some essential oils are emmenagogic, treats the antenatal period as a caution, and lists specific oils to avoid in specific situations (clary sage, jasmine and rose in threatened premature labour, for example). It does not mention litsea, lemongrass or citral. It is a clinical guideline for midwives working with the oils it lists, so silence in it is not clearance, and a local NHS board's document is not a national rule.

The same guideline publishes dilution figures for the oils it covers, such as a 1% massage blend (1 drop in 5 ml of carrier). Those numbers belong to those oils and that clinical setting. Our skin copy says 0.5% to 2% for adults generally, and the two ranges overlapping is a coincidence of arithmetic, not an endorsement of litsea in pregnancy.

On evidence, MotherToBaby (University of Arizona teratogen information service, Chris Colón, April 2016) says that for many oils there are few or no studies in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and that lack of data does not show an oil is helpful or harmful, only that it has not been studied. It adds that topical use usually does not lead to large absorption, but absorption is greater with constant use, broken or diseased skin, large areas, or swallowing. That is a general statement, not about litsea.

What is known about this oil's own hazards

The European Food Safety Authority's 2021 opinion on litsea berry oil as an animal feed additive concluded the oil should be considered an irritant to skin and eyes, a skin sensitiser and a presumed respiratory sensitiser, and noted that no user-specific data were provided (EFSA FEEDAP, 2021). Citral, the main component in published analyses, is one of the 26 fragrance allergens the EU requires to be labelled individually; the European Commission's SCCS summary (2012) describes contact allergy as a lasting change in the immune system, and notes it is preventable because lower allergen concentrations reduce how often and how severely it occurs (European Commission, SCCS summary, 2012). A 2005 study in mice and rats put the oral LD50 near 4,000 mg/kg and the dermal LD50 above 5,000 mg/kg, with negative genotoxicity tests (Luo et al., 2005, J Food Prot); the abstract describes no reproductive study, and none of this speaks to pregnancy.

So the documented hazard of the oil, for anyone, is irritation and sensitisation. That is a reason for the conservative skin copy we publish (0.5% to 2%, patch test first), and it is also why a pregnant reader with an allergy-prone history belongs in a clinician's conversation before skin use.

Children: the poisoning numbers

Lee, Harnett and Cairns reviewed 4,412 essential oil exposure calls to the NSW Poisons Information Centre (July 2014 to June 2018): 63% involved people under 15, 80% were accidental, and 31% of callers had symptoms at the time of the call. The oils most often involved were eucalyptus (46.4%), tea tree (17.0%), lavender, clove and peppermint; litsea cubeba was not among the five named (Med J Aust 2020;212(3):132-133). The authors write that severe toxicity can follow as little as 5 ml in a child, which they call inadequate protection under a rule requiring child-resistant closures only above 15 ml. That figure concerns essential oils as a class, not litsea.

The arithmetic is worth doing. Our COA gives a relative density of 0.883, so 5 ml is about 4.4 g, or roughly 100 drops. A 0.5 oz bottle holds about 14.8 ml, close to three times that figure. The smallest retail size we sell therefore already exceeds the amount those authors cite for a young child, if a child got hold of all of it.

The National Capital Poison Center says children's thin skin and immature livers may make them more vulnerable than adults, and advises locking bottles away, out of sight and reach (poison.org, undated). On packaging in the United States, the CPSC enforcement notice we read concerns oils with more than 5% methyl salicylate under 16 CFR 1700.15 (CPSC warning 23-079, December 2022). Litsea is not a methyl salicylate oil, and we found no CPSC statement about it, so do not assume any bottle of it has a child-resistant cap; check what you receive and store it high and closed regardless.

There is no age-based dilution table here, because no source we fetched publishes one for litsea cubeba oil. Our copy for adults is to patch test and keep it away from children, and we leave it there.

What to bring to the appointment

If a child or anyone has swallowed the oil, or has trouble breathing after exposure, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 (or use the webPOISONCONTROL tool at poison.org) or emergency services, rather than searching for advice.

For the general skin picture read the skin basics article, the FAQ, the notes on storage and the phototoxicity research, and let your clinician decide whether any of it applies to you.

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