Essential Branch

Spicy essential oil

Cinnamon leaf

Cinnamomum verum

A cinnamon tree with glossy green leaves and red-tinged new growth at the tips of its branches.
A cinnamon tree with glossy green leaves and red-tinged new growth at the tips of its branches. Photo: Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0

Cinnamon leaf oil is distilled from the leaves of the true cinnamon tree, Cinnamomum verum, mainly in Sri Lanka. It smells warm and spicy but closer to clove than to the sweet bark you bake with, because most of it is eugenol. It is a popular note in autumn and winter diffuser blends with orange and ginger. On skin it is a strong irritant, so the limit is low, and it should never go in the bath. Do not confuse it with cinnamon bark oil, which is far more irritating and has an even lower limit. Veterinary poison lines list cinnamon among the oils that harm cats and dogs.

Safety at a glance

  • Pregnancy Avoid
  • Children From age 6
  • Dogs Avoid
  • Cats Avoid
  • Sunlight Not phototoxic
  • On skin Up to 0.6%

Reference

Botanical name Cinnamomum verum
Plant family Lauraceae
Plant part Leaves
Extraction steam distillation
Main origins Sri Lanka and India
Aroma family Spicy
Note Middle note
Aroma Warm, clove-like spice, drier than the bark
Main constituents eugenol, eugenyl acetate, beta-caryophyllene, linalool and (E)-cinnamaldehyde
Common uses seasonal, fresh home and warming
Suggested maximum on skin 0.6% of the blend
Phototoxic No
Shelf life once opened 2 to 3 years
Pregnancy Avoid
Children From age 6
Dogs Avoid
Cats Avoid
Safety notes Eugenol makes cinnamon leaf a skin and mucous-membrane irritant: keep it to 0.6% on skin, never in the bath, and we suggest no skin use before age 6. The IFPA lists cinnamon among oils to avoid in pregnancy, and Pet Poison Helpline lists cinnamon as toxic to both dogs and cats.

Blends well with

Used in: Essential Oil Blends for Seasonal Comfort

Sources

  1. Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition (Tisserand & Young), Churchill Livingstone / Elsevier
  2. Medicinal properties of 'true' cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum): a systematic review (Ranasinghe et al., 2013), PubMed Central (NIH)
  3. Safety, National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA)
  4. Updates on essential oils, Pet Poison Helpline