Cit­ronel­la oil is a colour­less or light yel­low liq­uid with a char­ac­ter­is­tic woody, grassy or lemo­ny odour. It is flam­ma­ble and if the vapours are in­haled, this could cause an ini­tial stim­u­la­tion fol­lowed by de­pres­sion of the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem. Cit­ronel­la oil may be harm­ful if in­gest­ed in quan­ti­ty and may ir­ri­tate the skin and eye. How­ev­er, it is not be­lieved to be haz­ardous to hu­mans, in­clud­ing chil­dren and those with sen­si­tive skin, if used ac­cord­ing to la­bel in­struc­tions. Cit­ronel­la oil has been wide­ly used since the 1950s with­out any ad­verse ef­fects which may cause con­cern. Cit­ronel­la oil has min­i­mal or no risk to wildlife and en­vi­ron­ment due to its tox­ic lev­els be­ing low and its use be­ing lim­it­ed. There­fore, it can be used around the home with no ex­pect­ed ad­verse ef­fects.

Us­es of Cit­ronel­la Oil:

1) In­sect re­pel­lent:

Cit­ronel­la oil re­pels in­sects such as mos­qui­toes, black flies, fleas and ticks, there­fore, pre­vent­ing its bites. It is used on hu­mans and their cloth­ing – in the form of an oil, liq­uid and patch.

Cit­ronel­la oil is a nat­ur­al, non-tox­ic al­ter­na­tive to chem­i­cal in­sect re­pel­lents such as DEET, there­fore, is usu­al­ly the pre­ferred choice. Al­so avail­able are sol­id prod­ucts such as cit­ronel­la oil in­sect re­pelling can­dles and car­tridges.

Cit­ronel­la oil is al­so used in a tablet or pel­let form in recre­ation­al or out­door house­hold ar­eas and around trees and shrubs. In ad­di­tion, there are an­i­mal col­lars and tags con­tain­ing cit­ronel­la oil for pets and oth­er do­mes­tic an­i­mals to re­pel fleas.

A com­bi­na­tion of the cit­ronel­la oil and cedar­wood vir­gin­ian oil al­so helps to re­pel mos­qui­toes.

2) Aro­mather­a­py:

Cit­ronel­la oil, an es­sen­tial oil, pos­sess­es ac­ti­vat­ing and warm­ing qual­i­ties both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly. The aro­ma is said to be like its rel­a­tives lemon­grass and pal­marosa. How­ev­er, cit­ronel­la oil is over­looked in aro­mather­a­py be­cause of its as­so­ci­a­tion with in­sect re­pel­len­cy.

When cit­ronel­la oil is di­lut­ed prop­er­ly in a base oil and is ap­plied to skin, it pro­duces a mild sen­sa­tion of warmth – which re­lieves painful mus­cles and joints.

Men­tal­ly, the aro­ma of cit­ronel­la oil may help with ner­vous fa­tigue due to its clar­i­fy­ing prop­er­ties. It can al­so ease pres­sure of mi­graines and headaches.

Cit­ronel­la oil blends well with cedar­wood, or­ange, gera­ni­um, lemon and berg­amot - how­ev­er, you should on­ly use es­sen­tial oils un­der those spe­cialised in the field. It is safer to con­sult a qual­i­fied aro­mather­a­pist if ever in doubt.

3) As­trin­gent:

Cit­ronel­la oil is an as­trin­gent and if used cor­rect­ly it may help with oily skin ar­eas. Use a sin­gle drop of cit­ronel­la oil on the skin (usu­al­ly in­ner fore­arm) to test for ir­ri­ta­tion.

Ap­ply two or three drops of cit­ronel­la oil to a cot­ton ball and gen­tly wipe off the ex­cess oil. Then com­plete your reg­u­lar fa­cial rou­tine.

4) Per­fume In­dus­try:

The Ja­va cit­ronel­la oil is one of the most wide­ly used per­fume oils and is of­ten used as a start­ing point for per­fume ma­te­ri­als, as its con­stituents cit­ronel­la and geran­iol are im­por­tant and wide­ly used per­fume build­ing blocks.