Body & Beauty / Compounds / Neral

Neral on your skin: a safety profile

Context-dependent

Safety profile for Neral relevant to people.

What is neral?

Also known as: cis-Citral, Citral b, (2Z)-3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dienal, (Z)-Citral.

CAS number
106-26-3
Molecular formula
C10H16O
Molecular weight
152.23 g/mol
SMILES
CC(=CCCC(=CC=O)C)C
PubChem CID
643779

Risk for people

Context-dependent

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Neral.

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 neral

  • Personal Care — perfume, soap, cosmetics
  • Consumer Products — cleaning products, candles

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Neral:

  • Lower-sensitization structural analog; Unscented formulation
    Trade-offs: Eliminates allergen risk entirely; consumer acceptance varies (some associate scent with cleanliness/efficacy); growing market segment; regulatory advantage in EU (no IFRA compliance needed).
    Relative cost: 1.2-2×

Frequently asked questions

What products contain neral?

Neral appears in: perfume (Personal care); soap (Personal care); cleaning products (Consumer products); candles (Consumer products).

See Neral in the body app

Look up products containing neral, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. PubChem (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 →