Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 272.
Colorless liquid.
Insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, miscible with most perfume and flavor oils.
Widely used as a powerful lemon-fragrance chemical, but suffers from poor stability in many types of functional products.
Very commonly used in flavor compositions. Used in imitation apple, cherry, ginger, grape, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, spice, strawberry and even in vanilla.
Accordingly, its use is somewhat restricted and there is a low limit of concentration of Citral for most perfumes.
Concentration is normally about 40 ppm in the finished product, but can be up to 150-170 ppm in chewing gum.
Produced from many methods
| Category | Kind | Max % | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category 1 | Max % | 0.11% | — | DOC |
| Category 2 | Max % | 0.032% | — | DOC |
| Category 3 | Max % | 0.1% | — | DOC |
| Category 4 | Max % | 0.6% | — | DOC |
| Category 5A | Max % | 0.15% | — | DOC |
| Category 5B | Max % | 0.15% | — | DOC |
| Category 5C | Max % | 0.15% | — | DOC |
| Category 5D | Max % | 0.051% | — | DOC |
| Category 6 | Max % | 0.35% | — | DOC |
| Category 7A | Max % | 0.2% | — | DOC |
| Category 7B | Max % | 0.2% | — | DOC |
| Category 8 | Max % | 0.051% | — | DOC |
| Category 9 | Max % | 1.2% | — | DOC |
| Category 10A | Max % | 1.2% | — | DOC |
| Category 10B | Max % | 4.2% | — | DOC |
| Category 11A | Max % | 0.051% | — | DOC |
| Category 11B | Max % | 0.051% | — | DOC |
| Category 12 | No restriction | — | No Restriction | DOC |
Compliance-support only. Values resolved from the current IFRA corpus; each row cites the document excerpt it came from. Not a substitute for a qualified safety assessor.
Natural complex substances (NCSs) in which this material typically occurs.
| NCS | Botanical | Typical % |
|---|---|---|
| Lemongrass oil, East Indian | Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steudel) Will. Watson | 73% |
| Litsea cubeba oil | Litsea Cubeba(Lour.) Pers. | 69% |
| Melissa oil (genuine Melissa officinalis L.) | Melissa officinalis L. | 58% |
| Lemon oil terpeneless | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 40% |
| Verbena oil and absolute (Lippia citriodora Kunth.) | Lippia citriodora (L.) Kunth | 25.6% |
| Petitgrain lemon oil | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 23% |
| Lime oil. expressed folded (2-5X) | Citrus aurantifolia (Christman) Swingle | 20% |
| Lemon oil cold pressed | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 12% |
| Mandarin oil, terpeneless | Citrus reticulata Blanco | 10.5% |
| Kumquat oil, Fortunella margarita | Fortunella (Lour.) Swingle | 10% |
| Orange peel oil, bitter, terpene-free | Citrus aurantium L. spp. Amara Link | 10% |
| Tangerine oil terpeneless | Citrus reticulata blanco | 10% |
| Lime oil, cold pressed, furocoumarin free | Citrus aurantifolia (Christman) Swingle | 7% |
| Meyer lemon oil. cold pressed | Citrus x meyerii | 5% |
| Citron oil | Citrus medica L. | 5% |
| Orange peel oil, sweet terpeneless | Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck | 5% |
| Ginger Oil | Zingiber officinale Rosc. | 2.8% |
| Lemon oil, furocoumarin free | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 2.1% |
| Eucalyptus radiata oil | Eucalyptus radiata Sieber ex DC oil | 1.5% |
| Rose oil | Rosa x damascena Mill. | 1.4% |
| Grapefruit oil, folded | Citrus paradisi Macf. | 1.2% |
| Lemongrass oil terpenes | Cymbopogon spp. | 1% |
| Citronella oil, Ceylon type | Cymbopogon nardus (L.) Rendle | 0.8% |
| Bergamot oil expressed | Citrus bergamia (Risso) Wright & Arn. | 0.7% |
| Cyperus articulatus oil | Cyperus articulatus L. | 0.7% |
| Lemon extract | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 0.7% |
| Petitgrain Bigarade Oil | Citrus aurantium L. spp. Amara Link | 0.65% |
| Palmarosa oil | Cymbopogon martinii (Roxb.) Wats | 0.6% |
| Lemon oil, terpenes | Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. | 0.51% |
| Geranium oil | Pelargonium graveolens l'Hertier ex Aiton | 0.5% |
| Geranium oil, terpene-free | Pelargonium graveolens l'Hertier ex Aiton | 0.5% |
| Bergamot oil, furocoumarin free | Citrus bergamia (Risso) Wright & Arn. | 0.43% |
| Cardamom seed extract | Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton | 0.35% |
| Origanum oil (extractive) | Thymus capitatus L. Hoffmanns & Link | 0.3% |
| Lime oil, terpeneless | Citrus aurantifolia (Swingle) | 0.22% |
| Lime Oil, Expressed | Citrus aurantifolia (Swingle) | 0.2% |
| Orange flower oil, bitter (neroli and neroli bigarade) | Citrus aurantium L. spp. Amara Link | 0.2% |
| Marjoram oil, Spanish | Origanum mastichina L. | 0.2% |
| Petitgrain mandarin oil terpeneless | Citrus reticulata Blanco | 0.16% |
| Orange essence oil | Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck | 0.15% |
| Orange oil, sweet, psoralen-free | Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck | 0.15% |
| Bergamot oil terpenes | Citrus bergamia (Risso) Wright & Arn. | 0.1% |
| Tangerine Oil | Citrus reticulata blanco | 0.1% |
| Grapefruit Oil | Citrus paradisi Macf. | 0.1% |
| Bitter Orange Peel Oil Expressed | Citrus aurantium L. spp. Amara Link | 0.1% |
| Murcote oil, expressed | Citrus reticulata spp. murcote, Swingle | 0.1% |
| Tangelo oil, expressed | Citrus x tangelo Ingram and Moore | 0.1% |
| Rose absolute | Rosa x damascena Mill. | 0.05% |
| Lime oil terpenes | Citrus aurantifolia (Swingle) | 0.05% |
| Cassie absolute | Vachellia farnesiana (L.) Willd. | 0.03% |
| Citrus junos oil | Citrus junos Siebold ex. Tanaka ichangensis × reticulata var. austera (reticulata var. austera) (Rutaceae) | 0.01% |