Litsea Cubeba vs Lemon Eucalyptus: Citral, Citronellal, PMD

"Oil of lemon eucalyptus" on a CDC repellent list does not mean the essential oil in a bottle of lemon eucalyptus. It means a registered, formulated product, and CDC says outright that it does not recommend the raw oil. Litsea cubeba is a different case altogether, a fruit oil that is mostly citral where lemon eucalyptus leaf oil is mostly citronellal. The two share a lemon name and little else, and we sell only the litsea.

Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil bottle

Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil

Our own Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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What the CDC and EPA wording says

The CDC Yellow Book chapter (page dated 23 April 2025) lists "Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or PMD (chemical name: para-menthane-3,8-diol, the synthesized version of OLE)" among the active ingredients that typically give reasonably long-lasting protection. It then states: "CDC does not recommend using 'pure' oil of lemon eucalyptus (an essential oil that is not formulated) as a repellent," because it "has not undergone validated testing for safety and efficacy." It also says parents should not use products containing OLE or PMD on children under 3 years old, to avoid potential allergic skin reactions (CDC, 2025).

EPA's fact sheet on PMD, a product registered in March 2000, gives the other half. PMD occurs naturally in the lemon eucalyptus plant, and the natural oil can be extracted from the leaves and twigs, but "for commercial use, the active ingredient is chemically synthesized." EPA describes it as structurally similar to menthol, used on skin and clothing against mosquitoes, biting flies and gnats, with label cautions about eyes and small children's hands and faces (US EPA, PMD fact sheet). So the repellent on the shelf is a purified or synthesized compound under a registration, and the oil from the leaves is the starting point for the idea, not the same product.

The raw oil is also absent from the federal minimum-risk list. In 40 CFR 152.25(f), Table 1 lists citronella oil, lemongrass oil, geraniol and cedarwood oil, but neither lemon eucalyptus nor litsea (40 CFR 152.25, Cornell LII copy, read 28 October 2026). For how that list reads for citronella and what it exempts, see the citronella comparison.

How much protection, per the review

Maia and Moore's 2011 Malaria Journal review explains the gap. Plant actives tend to be highly volatile, so they work for a short time and evaporate; PMD has a lower vapour pressure than the volatile monoterpenes and gives protection over several hours. The lemon eucalyptus essential oil, they say, "is repellent for around one hour." Their Table 1 reports PMD results that vary with product and test:

PMD product (as listed by Maia and Moore, 2011)SettingResult
20% PMDlab, Ae. aegypti100% protection for 120 minutes
20% PMD (1.7 mg/cm2)lab, A. stephensi100% protection for 11 to 12 hours
30% PMDfield, Bolivia96.88% protection for 4 hours
50% PMDfield, Tanzania, An. gambiae and An. funestus100% protection for 6 to 7 hours

The same 20% PMD gives anywhere from 2 hours to 12 hours depending on the mosquito and the test (Maia and Moore, 2011). The review also says the lemon eucalyptus essential oil is not EPA-registered as an insect repellent, and notes that CDC has advocated PMD for disease-endemic areas. The review is from 2011; CDC's 2025 text, quoted above, is the current wording.

The chemistry contrast

A 2014 study in The Scientific World Journal analysed Corymbia citriodora leaf oil, steam-distilled from trees at Dueré, Tocantins, Brazil, by GC and GC-MS. Citronellal was 61.78%, isopulegol 15.54%, beta-citronellol 7.90% and 1,8-cineole 3.44%, with 93.62% of the oil identified in total. Geranial and neral are not in that table (Aguiar et al., 2014). That is one sample from one site; oils from other origins will differ.

Litsea fruit oil from eight sites in six Chinese provinces was 78.7% to 87.4% neral plus geranial, with citronellal at up to 6.2% and limonene 0.7% to 5.3% (Si et al., 2012). Set the two side by side and the lead molecule changes: citronellal at 61.78% in the leaf oil against under 7% in the litsea, and citral at 78.7% or more in litsea against none listed in the leaf oil. A single litsea oil analysed from Arunachal Pradesh had citronellal at 17.32%, which shows how far one species can move (Boruah et al., 2019); the full spread is in the citral comparison.

The two are not interchangeable in a recipe either, because citral and citronellal are different molecules. Citral's isomers are named geranial and neral (3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal, per the IFRA citral Standard, IFRA, 2020), the IFRA standard lists dermal sensitization and systemic toxicity as the properties driving it, and citral is the subject of our citral article. I fetched no equivalent standard for citronellal, so I make no claim about its limits; a formulator selling a product needs to check that for any lemon eucalyptus ingredient.

A worked caution about "lemon" in the name

Say you see a bottle called lemon eucalyptus essential oil and a second called "oil of lemon eucalyptus 30%". By the CDC wording the second may be a registered product and the first is not tested. By composition the first is a citronellal-led leaf oil. By our own copy, litsea is sold neat and diluted by the user to 0.5% to 2% for skin, about 3 to 12 drops per ounce, with a patch test. Try the arithmetic a reader might attempt: to match the 30% PMD in the Bolivia field study by diluting raw oil to 30%, one ounce (29.57 ml) would take 0.30 x 29.57 = about 8.9 ml of oil, roughly 177 drops or 7.8 g at 0.883 g/ml if the oil were as dense as ours (a figure for litsea, used here only as an order of magnitude). Nothing in the sources says a 30% mix of raw leaf oil would perform like 30% PMD, and the CDC wording says the raw oil has not been validated. None of our litsea copy carries over to lemon eucalyptus: its handling is a question for its seller and, for children, a physician or pharmacist, because CDC itself warns about OLE and PMD under age 3.

What we recommend

If mosquitoes where you live carry disease, buy a registered repellent and read its label; CDC's list names PMD and OLE products among them. If you want a lemon note for a candle or soap, litsea is the oil we sell and it is a citral oil. Our shop makes no repellent claim for litsea, and we sell no lemon eucalyptus. For what is published on litsea and insects, see the repellent article, and for the nearest lemon-scented citral oil, the lemongrass comparison.

Litsea cubeba is not for internal use and should go well down in a carrier before it touches skin.

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