Essential Branch

Citrus essential oil

Lemongrass

Cymbopogon flexuosus

A full clump of long, arching lemongrass blades growing in a garden.
A full clump of long, arching lemongrass blades growing in a garden. Photo: Undeka 11, CC BY-SA 4.0

Lemongrass oil is distilled from a fast-growing tropical grass and smells intensely of lemon with an earthy, grassy edge. The East Indian type, Cymbopogon flexuosus, makes up much of what is sold, and the West Indian type, Cymbopogon citratus, smells similar. It is popular in kitchens, cleaning sprays and fresh-home diffuser blends. The lemon scent comes from citral, one of the stronger skin sensitisers among common oils, so lemongrass belongs in the diffuser and the cleaning cupboard far more than on skin. Keep it out of the bath, and leave it out of pregnancy blends.

Safety at a glance

  • Pregnancy Avoid
  • Children From age 6
  • Dogs Use with caution
  • Cats Use with caution
  • Sunlight Not phototoxic
  • On skin Up to 0.15%

Reference

Botanical name Cymbopogon flexuosus
Plant family Poaceae
Plant part Leaves (grass)
Extraction steam distillation
Main origins India, Indonesia and Madagascar
Aroma family Citrus
Note Top note
Aroma Intense lemon with an earthy, grassy edge
Main constituents geranial, neral, geraniol, geranyl acetate and limonene
Common uses cleaning, fresh air, kitchen and uplifting
Suggested maximum on skin 0.15% of the blend
Phototoxic No
Shelf life once opened 2 to 3 years
Pregnancy Avoid
Children From age 6
Dogs Use with caution
Cats Use with caution
Safety notes Citral makes lemongrass a skin sensitiser: Tisserand and Young suggest 0.7%, but IFRA caps citral at 0.15% in leave-on body products, so we use 0.15% (and suggest waiting until age 6 for any skin use). Tisserand and Young flag a possible risk to an unborn baby, so we list it as avoid in pregnancy, and NAHA advises keeping it out of the bath.

Blends well with

Used in: Essential Oil Blends for a Fresh Home

Sources

  1. Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition (Tisserand & Young), Churchill Livingstone / Elsevier
  2. IFRA Standards, 51st Amendment (ylang ylang extracts, citral, geraniol, citronellol, eugenol), International Fragrance Association (IFRA)
  3. Scientific basis for the therapeutic use of Cymbopogon citratus, stapf (lemon grass) (Shah et al., 2011), PubMed Central (NIH)
  4. Safety, National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA)