High Citral Oils vs Pregnancy?

Who knew?  Certainly not us!

  

I had always known that some of the very high Citral oils were powerful irritants.  And we have always warned people against using Lemon Verbena essential oil.  It was on the “IFRA-banned” list as a sensitizer.   But we had never made the connection between that specific oil and the general class of “high citral” essential oils. And nowhere had we read warning against using high citral oils during pregnancy or lactation.

At the recent “Clinical Safety in Aromatherapy” conference, Robert Tisserand talked at length about the risks of Citral, not only as a sensitizer, but also (and this was a shocker!) to pregnant women.  It appears that there is a chance that Citral can effect tooth and bone development in the fetus.   I have NEVER seen any warnings against use of Citral or Citral containing essential oils during pregnancy.

What IS Citral? 

Citral is a blend of two naturally occurring phytochemicals (Isomers), Geranial and Neral.  By itself, Citral is a powerful irritant and sensitizer.  Blending with oils high in d-Limonene *may* cancel out the irritant/sensitizer effects of the Citral, but it seems that can’t be guaranteed.  It often helps, but not always.  (Pink Grapefruit is a perfect example of a high d-limonene oil that could quench the irritating or sensitizing effects of Citral, but there is no guarantee. Some studies show the “quenching” affect, others indicate it doesn’t exist. When research results are mixed, it is at the very least important that we be aware of the risks.)  

Based on this we have added some warnings to certain oils on our website.  The list of high Citral oils includes:

• Lemongrass
• Lemon Myrtle
• Lemon Tea Tree
• Lemon Verbena
• Litsea Cubeba
• Melissa
(also on the list, but not oils we offer, are Lemon Leaf [lemon petitgrain] and Honey Myrtle.)

Obviously, they are the NON-citrus lemony scented oils.

There is no indication that inhalation of the high citral oils can cause any problems, either on the skin or with pregnancy.  However oral use (ingestion) of any of them should be avoided during pregnancy or lactation. 
We are not sure what the safe level for topical use would be to avoid risk to the fetus, but according to Robert Tisserand, the 0.7% dilution recommended by IFRA should give a sufficient margin of safety for pregnant clients. THAT was new to me. We are going to have to very carefully calculate the percentages of the high citral oils in all of our products, and have put appropriate safety warnings on our online descriptions and on the labels of products containing Citral rich oils in a percentage higher than the recommended limit.

One such product is our popular "SkeeterBeater" Gel and Body Oil.  We have added an "avoid use during pregnancy" and "do not use on broken skin" warnings to the product descriptions and to the website.

For the most complete and up to date information on the safe and appropriate use of these powerful healing oils, please see Essential Oil Safety, 2nd edition, by Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young. 

What DO you call it?

We get wonderful emails.  And the rule is when I get the same question three times close together, I write a blog article to address it.

This week a client who prefers to be anonymous wrote the answer for me (and made me laugh!)  Thank you for sharing Ms Anonymous!!!

What do you call it when you are a woman?  It scarcely seems fair.  A man can have 'jock strap itch"...   do we have "brassiere itch"???

I am not slim and sylphlike.   I am "curvacious."  That's a wonderful word, isn't it?  And my bosom is bountiful.

This summer I developed what I thought was a heat rash under the girls. I used baby powder. I used corn starch.  It got worse.

All of my bras are synthetic materials. (It is hard to find cotton bras in the higher letter sizes.)  When I go braless they have to deal with skin against skin. When I wear a bra, they deal with polyester or vinyl or other non-absorbent fabrics.  More powder, more corn starch. 

And the rash got worse.

I remembered reading somewhere that Corn Starch feeds fungi, and not to use it. Back to commercial Baby Powder. (You know, that brand that smells like fresh clean baby?)  It didn't get worse, but it didn't get better and it ITCHED. This holding pattern was not acceptable.

Fungi!  What is anti-fungal?

Search engine on your website brought up a lot of essential oils that I didn't want to use

on (or under) the girls.  (Not when I had already irritated the rash by scratching it.) Search some more:   Hydrosols:  Your website says: Melissa. (I didn't have any and it would sting. At least I think it would.)  Monarda (you were out of stock.)  Pinon Pine Hydrosol.

BINGO!!! I had that in the house!

Let's try a spritz and see what happens.  Doesn't sting.  Soothes.  We'll concentrate on this for awhile.

Change and wash my bra every day, whether it needs it or not.  Spritz the underpart of the bra with the Pinon Pine Hydrosol while it is drying. (I couldn't bleach them and wanted to make sure they were not carrying the fungus.)  Spritz the hydrosol whenever I can.  Three or four times a day?

Whatever the rash was, within about two days it stopped itching, and was gone without a trace in a week.

Bra-strap itch???  Is that what we call it?

Thank you for the full descriptions of your products. Otherwise I would not have known what to try!"


And thank you for sharing!  When it's not a heat rash... this is something easy and effective to try!   "Bra strap itch" indeed.