Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Jul 5;19(7):1966.
doi: 10.3390/ijms19071966.

Biological Activities and Safety of Citrus spp. Essential Oils

Noura S Dosoky  1 , William N Setzer  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Biological Activities and Safety of Citrus spp. Essential Oils

Noura S Dosoky et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Citrus fruits have been a commercially important crop for thousands of years. In addition, Citrus essential oils are valuable in the perfume, food, and beverage industries, and have also enjoyed use as aromatherapy and medicinal agents. This review summarizes the important biological activities and safety considerations of the essential oils of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), neroli (Citrus aurantium), orange petitgrain (Citrus aurantium), mandarin (Citrus reticulata), lemon (Citrus limon), lime (Citrus aurantifolia), grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi), bergamot (Citrus bergamia), Yuzu (Citrus junos), and kumquat (Citrus japonica).

Keywords: bergamot; bitter orange; grapefruit; kumquat; lemon; lime; mandarin; neroli; orange petitgrain; sweet orange; yuzu.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. dōTERRA International had no role in the writing or the decision to publish this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of key volatile components in Citrus essential oils.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chemical structures of key non-volatile components in expressed Citrus essential oils.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moore G.A. Oranges and lemons: Clues to the taxonomy of Citrus from molecular markers. Trends Genet. 2001;17:536–540. doi: 10.1016/S0168-9525(01)02442-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mabberley D.J. Citrus (Rutaceae): A review of recent advances in etymology, systematics and medical applications. Blumea. 2004;49:481–498. doi: 10.3767/000651904X484432. - DOI
    1. Anwar F., Naseer R., Bhanger M.I., Ashraf S., Talpur F.N., Aladedunye F.A. Physico-chemical characteristics of citrus seeds and seed oils from Pakistan. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 2008;85:321–330. doi: 10.1007/s11746-008-1204-3. - DOI
    1. Sharma K., Mahato N., Cho M.H., Lee Y.R. Converting citrus wastes into value-added products: Economic and environmently friendly approaches. Nutrition. 2017;34:29–46. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2016.09.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martín M.A., Siles J.A., Chica A.F., Martín A. Biomethanization of orange peel waste. Bioresour. Technol. 2010;101:8993–8999. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2010.06.133. - DOI - PubMed