Body & Beauty / Compounds / Pulegone

Pulegone on your skin: a safety profile

Moderate risk

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

Direct skin contact with pennyroyal essential oil + pulegone-bearing fragrance products produces moderate dermal absorption + sensitization + hepatotoxic-metabolite (menthofuran) systemic uptake. EU Cosmetics Reg 1223/2009 Annex III + IFRA 51st Amendment all ground the dermal exposure pattern; finished-product concentration limits per leave-on/rinse-off product category protect the consumer cohort.

What is pulegone?

The IUPAC name is (5R)-5-methyl-2-propan-2-ylidenecyclohexan-1-one.

Also known as: (5R)-5-methyl-2-propan-2-ylidenecyclohexan-1-one, (+)-Pulegone, d-Pulegone, Pulegon.

IUPAC name: (5R)-5-methyl-2-propan-2-ylidenecyclohexan-1-one
CAS number: 89-82-7
Molecular formula: C10H16O
Molecular weight: 152.23 g/mol
SMILES: CC1CCC(=C(C)C)C(=O)C1
PubChem CID: 442495

Risk for people

Moderate risk

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Pulegone.

Agency	Year	Classification	Notes
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 pulegone

Personal Care — essential oils containing pulegone
Food — pennyroyal tea (AVOID), mint oils (trace)

Safer alternatives

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

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 pulegone safe for you?

What products contain pulegone?

Pulegone appears in: essential oils containing pulegone (Personal care); pennyroyal tea (AVOID) (Food); mint oils (trace) (Food).

See Pulegone in the body app

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

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Sources (6)

PubChem Compound Database (2026) — database
FDA Adverse Event Reporting System — Pennyroyal Oil + Pulegone Hepatotoxicity Case-Fatality Framework (Anderson et al. 1996 case-series; abortifacient-misuse fatality cluster) (1996) — regulatory
IFRA Standard 51st Amendment — Pulegone in fragrance products (skin-allergen + reproductive-toxicity + hepatotoxicity restriction; usage-level limits per product category) (2024) — regulatory
EFSA Scientific Opinion on Pulegone and Menthofuran in Flavourings (FGE.92 + FGE.92.Rev.1 — restriction of pulegone-bearing herbal products in foodstuffs; herbal-tea cohort analysis) (2016) — regulatory
EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 Annex III — Pulegone restriction (toothpaste + leave-on/rinse-off product limits per concentration framework) (2009) — regulatory
Anderson IB, Mullen WH, Meeker JE et al. — Pennyroyal toxicity: measurement of toxic metabolite levels in two cases and review of the literature (canonical pennyroyal-oil/pulegone-fatality cohort, JAMA Internal Medicine) (1996) — study

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 →