Citral

(in 7,339 products)

1. Drug / Medicine - Treats, alleviates, cures, or prevents sickness. As officially declared by a governmental drug/medicine regulatory body

2. Flavor / Flavoring / Flavor Enhancer - Provides or enhances a particular taste or smell.

3. Fragrance / Fragrance Component - Provides or enhances a particular smell or odor.

Citral, or 3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal or lemonal, is either a pair or a mixture of terpenoids. The two compounds are double bond isomers. The E-isomer is known as geranial or citral A. The Z-isomer is known as neral or citral B.

Citral is an aroma compound used in perfumery for its citrus effect. Citral is also used as a flavor and for fortifying lemon oil. It also has strong antimicrobial qualities and pheromonal effects in insects. Citral is used in the synthesis of vitamin A, ionone, and methyl ionone, to mask the smell of smoke. [1]

Citral has a lemon odor and is found in the oils of many lemon-based plants.

Using Swiss mice, citral was found to have prophylactic and therapeutic anti-nociceptive (anti-pain) effects on acute and chronic pain. [2] A separate team also used Swiss mice to verify citral's anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects. [2] [3] Citral can also be combined with naproxen to produce a potent anti-inflammatory effect. [4] [8] The mechanism of citral's anti-inflammatory effect is its inhibition of cytokines and nitric oxide produced by pathogens. [5] [6] [7]

Citral has anti-ulcerative effects on gastric ulcers at around 25-30 mg/kg. [2] [8]

Citral is also antibacterial and antifungal. [9] [10]

Lastly, citral is also able to reduce the likelihood of cancer with its anti-clastogenic (clastogens are agents which can damage DNA) effect and inhibits unwanted cell proliferation. [11] [12] [13]

(EC) No 1223/2009

2003/15/EC

III/70

The presence of the substance must be indicated in the list of ingredients referred to in Article 19(1)g when its concentration exceeds:

- 0.001% in leave-on products

- 0.01% in rinse-off products

0450/01 - Memorandum on the SCCNFP Opinion concerning Fragrance Allergy

0673/03 - Opinion concerning Essential Oils

1153/08 - Opinion on "Dermal Sensitization Quantitative Risk Assesment " (QRA: Citral, farnesol and phenylacetaldehyde)

0017/98 - Opinion concerning Fragrance Allergy in Consumers - A Review of the Problem -

Analysis of the need for appropriate Consumer Information and Identification of Consumer Allergens

0202/99 - Opinion concerning the Interim Position on Fragrance Allergy

1. PubChem: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/638011

2. Citral: A monoterpene with prophylactic and therapeutic anti-nociceptive effects in experimental models of acute and chronic pain. (European Journal of Pharmacology, 736, 16–25. doi:10.1016/j.ejphar.2014.04.029)

3. Citral reduces nociceptive and inflammatory response in rodents. (Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia, 21(3), 497–502. doi:10.1590/s0102-695x2011005000065)

4. Synergistic effect of the interaction between naproxen and citral on inflammation in rats. (Phytomedicine, 18(1), 74–79. doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2010.05.009)

5. Lemongrass and citral effect on cytokines production by murine macrophages. (Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 137(1), 909–913. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2011.07.021)

6. Inhibitory effect of citral on NO production by suppression of iNOS expression and NF-κB activation in RAW264.7 cells. (Archives of Pharmacal Research, 31(3), 342–349. doi:10.1007/s12272-001-1162-0)

7. Anti-inflammation activity of fruit essential oil from Cinnamomum insularimontanum Hayata. (Bioresource Technology, 99(18), 8783–8787. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2008.04.041)

8. The combination of naproxen and citral reduces nociception and gastric damage in rats. (Archives of Pharmacal Research, 33(10), 1691–1697. doi:10.1007/s12272-010-1020-9)

9. Antibacterial Activity of Carvacrol, Citral, and Geraniol against Salmonella typhimurium in Culture Medium and on Fish Cubes. (J. Food Sci., 60(6), 1364–1368. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.1995.tb04592.x)

10. Preformed antifungal compounds of lemon fruit: citral and its relation to disease resistance. (J. Agric. Food Chem., 43(4), 1057–1061. doi:10.1021/jf00052a039)

11. Anti-Clastogenic Effects of Citral. (Iran. J. Pharmacol. Ther., 4(1), 28-32)

12. Citral, a component of lemongrass oil inhibits the clastogenic effect of nickel chloride in mouse micronucleus test system (Pak. J. Pharm. Sci., 19(2), 108-13)

13. Citral inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cells. (Fundam. Clin. Pharmacol., 23(5), 549–556. doi:10.1111/j.1472-8206.2009.00738.x)

1. EU CosIng Annex III, SUBSTANCES WITH RESTRICTIONS IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS [2018]

- Ref: III/70

2. EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety

- List A: http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/perfume-allergies/en/l-3/1-introduction.htm

3. Japan’s List of Designated Food Additives under Article 10 of the Food Sanitation Act

- Citral

4. Hong Kong Consumer Council

- Citral - Fragrance allergen

5. International Fragrance Association Transparency List [2015]

- Citral