Body & Beauty / Compounds / Calamus oil (beta-asarone)

Calamus oil (beta-asarone) on your skin: a safety profile

High risk

(People-specific data is limited; this page draws from human adult context.) Contains beta-asarone — carcinogenic, genotoxic, neurotoxic; Indian calamus (tetraploid) has highest beta-asarone content; IFRA/EU restricted; abortifacient in traditional use

What is calamus oil (beta-asarone)?

Also known as: Calamus Oil, Аирное масло.

CAS number
8015-79-0

Risk for people

High risk

Contains beta-asarone — carcinogenic, genotoxic, neurotoxic; Indian calamus (tetraploid) has highest beta-asarone content; IFRA/EU restricted; abortifacient in traditional use

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Calamus oil (beta-asarone).

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
EDC Assessment—Suspected endocrine disruptor

Regulators apply different standards of evidence — animal-data weighting, exposure-pattern assumptions, epidemiological power thresholds — which is why two scientific bodies can review the same data and reach different conclusions. The disagreement is the data.

Where you encounter calamus oil (beta-asarone)

  • Personal Care — perfume (historical), aromatherapy
  • Food — flavoring (restricted)

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Calamus oil (beta-asarone):

  • Avoidance (no chemical substitute)
    Trade-offs: Direct chemical substitution requires verification that the replacement does not introduce new hazards (regrettable substitution). Conduct full hazard assessment of proposed alternative before adoption.
    Relative cost: 1.2-2×

Frequently asked questions

What products contain calamus oil (beta-asarone)?

Calamus oil (beta-asarone) appears in: perfume (historical) (Personal care); aromatherapy (Personal care); flavoring (restricted) (Food).

See Calamus oil (beta-asarone) in the body app

Look up products containing calamus oil (beta-asarone), compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. PubChem Compound Database (2026) — database

Reference data, not professional advice. Aggregates publicly available regulatory and scientific data; not a substitute for veterinary, medical, legal, or regulatory advice. Why we built ALETHEIA →