Body & Beauty / Compounds / Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil)

Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) on your skin: a safety profile

Moderate risk

(People-specific data is limited; this page draws from human adult context.) Safe at low concentrations in products; concentrated wintergreen oil is acutely toxic (1 tsp potentially lethal to child); salicylate poisoning from overuse of topical products

What is methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil)?

The IUPAC name is methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate.

Also known as: methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate, methyl salicylate, Analgit, Flucarmit.

IUPAC name
methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate
CAS number
119-36-8
Molecular formula
C8H8O3
Molecular weight
152.15 g/mol
SMILES
COC(=O)C1=CC=CC=C1O
PubChem CID
4133

Risk for people

Moderate risk

Safe at low concentrations in products; concentrated wintergreen oil is acutely toxic (1 tsp potentially lethal to child); salicylate poisoning from overuse of topical products

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil).

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
Regulatory Framework—Regulated under food safety frameworks (FDA GRAS, EU food additive regulations)

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 methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil)

  • Personal Care — toothpaste, mouthwash, lip balm
  • Consumer Products — muscle rubs, topical analgesics, heating pads
  • Food — candy, chewing gum, mint flavoring

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil):

  • Natural preservatives; Clean-label ingredients; Minimally processed food
    Trade-offs: Consumer label appeal ('clean label'); variable efficacy depending on food matrix and target pathogen; may alter flavor/color; regulatory status varies by jurisdiction; often more expensive per unit of preservation effect.
    Relative cost: 2-5× conventional

Frequently asked questions

What products contain methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil)?

Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) appears in: toothpaste (Personal care); mouthwash (Personal care); muscle rubs (Consumer products); topical analgesics (Consumer products); candy (Food).

See Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) in the body app

Look up products containing methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil), 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 →