Body & Beauty / Compounds / Massoia bark oil

Massoia bark oil on your skin: a safety profile

High risk

Not medical or professional safety advice, and not a substitute for a qualified clinician — consult one. Full disclaimer →

Direct skin contact with concentrated massoia-bark-oil + C10-massoia-lactone produces severe skin sensitization + Local-Lymph-Node-Assay-positive sensitizer signal per IFRA 51st Amendment + EU Cosmetics Reg 1223/2009 + RIFM 2018 review. IFRA prohibits leave-on skin-contact use of massoia bark oil. Aromatherapy + flavor-and-fragrance-manufacturing analytical-laboratory cohort + traditional-Indonesian-medicine-compounding cohort all ground the high-magnitude dermal hazard envelope.

What is massoia bark oil?

CAS number
85085-26-3

Risk for people

High risk

Direct skin contact with concentrated massoia-bark-oil + C10-massoia-lactone produces severe skin sensitization + Local-Lymph-Node-Assay-positive sensitizer signal per IFRA 51st Amendment + EU Cosmetics Reg 1223/2009 + RIFM 2018 review. IFRA prohibits leave-on skin-contact use of massoia bark oil. Aromatherapy + flavor-and-fragrance-manufacturing analytical-laboratory cohort + traditional-Indonesian-medicine-compounding cohort all ground the high-magnitude dermal hazard envelope.

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Massoia bark oil.

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
Unknown——

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 massoia bark oil

  • Personal Care — perfume (niche)
  • Food — flavoring (traditional Southeast Asian)
  • Fragrance — perfume, cologne, scented personal care products, household fragrance products, candles
    Identified in Fragrance Ingredient Safety Priority Research database (2,325 ingredients)

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Massoia bark oil:

  • 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

Is massoia bark oil safe for you?

Direct skin contact with concentrated massoia-bark-oil + C10-massoia-lactone produces severe skin sensitization + Local-Lymph-Node-Assay-positive sensitizer signal per IFRA 51st Amendment + EU Cosmetics Reg 1223/2009 + RIFM 2018 review. IFRA prohibits leave-on skin-contact use of massoia bark oil. Aromatherapy + flavor-and-fragrance-manufacturing analytical-laboratory cohort + traditional-Indonesian-medicine-compounding cohort all ground the high-magnitude dermal hazard envelope.

What products contain massoia bark oil?

Massoia bark oil appears in: perfume (niche) (Personal care); flavoring (traditional Southeast Asian) (Food); perfume (Fragrance); cologne (Fragrance).

See Massoia bark oil in the body app

Look up products containing massoia bark oil, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (6)
  1. PubChem Compound Database (2026) — database
  2. IFRA Standard 51st Amendment — Massoia bark oil (Cryptocarya massoia) prohibited from leave-on skin-contact fragrance products (potent skin sensitizer + acute-irritation framework) (2024) — regulatory
  3. EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 Annex II + Annex III — C10 + C12 massoia lactone restriction in finished cosmetic products (2009) — regulatory
  4. RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials) — Massoia lactone fragrance-ingredient toxicology profile + Local Lymph Node Assay sensitization framework (2018) — study
  5. Council of Europe — Active Principles in Natural Sources of Flavourings — Massoia bark oil + C10 lactone sensitizer-restriction framework (2014) — regulatory
  6. FDA Voluntary Cosmetic Registration Program (VCRP) + Food/Cosmetic Industry Self-Regulation — Massoia bark oil restricted to wash-off + low-concentration applications per IFRA framework alignment (2018) — regulatory

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