What is it?
A fragrance ingredient from the white birch, Betula alba, which the EU ingredient database describes as the volatile oil of the birch. The name can cover more than one material: essential oils distilled from birch, and birch tar oil, made by the destructive distillation of birch wood or bark. It is used to scent perfumes and other cosmetics.
Key information
- The EU lists Betula Alba Oil as a fragrance ingredient with no specific restrictions.
- IFRA prohibits crude birch tar oil as a fragrance ingredient because of carcinogenicity and genotoxicity from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) it releases.
- Only purified (rectified) birch tar oil may be used, with two marker PAHs kept to a combined 1 part per billion or less in the finished product.
- Sweet birch oil comes from a different tree, Betula lenta, and is almost entirely methyl salicylate, like wintergreen oil.
More information
The EU’s ingredient database (CosIng) lists two CAS registry numbers for Betula Alba Oil. One of them, 8001-88-5, is covered by the International Fragrance Association’s (IFRA) standard for birch wood pyrolysate, better known as birch tar oil, which is made by pyrolysis (destructive distillation) of the wood or bark of Betula alba and related birches. IFRA’s Expert Panel for Fragrance Safety recommends that crude birch tar oil not be used in any finished product because of carcinogenicity and genotoxicity from PAHs. Only rectified (purified) oils may be used, and benzo[a]pyrene and 1,2-benzanthracene, used as markers for PAHs, must total no more than 1 ppb in the finished product. This is the fragrance industry’s own standard.
Essential oils distilled from birch are a different kind of material. A study of silver birch (Betula pendula) buds found an oil yield of 0.5 percent, made up mostly of sesquiterpenes such as alpha-copaene, germacrene D and delta-cadinene, and noted that birch essential oils are used in cosmetics. We found no published safety review of either oil as a cosmetic ingredient, and Betula Alba Oil is not on the EU’s list of fragrance allergens that must be labeled.
Don’t confuse Betula Alba Oil with sweet birch oil, from Betula lenta of eastern North America. Authentic sweet birch oil is 93 percent or more methyl salicylate, the main compound in wintergreen oil, and a 2022 survey found that none of 27 birch essential oils bought online contained the chemical markers of real birch. Ingredient lists rarely say which birch material is used; if it matters to you, ask the maker.
Sources: European Commission CosIng: Betula Alba Oil; IFRA: Standard for birch wood pyrolysate (Amendment 47); Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2004): Essential oil of Betula pendula Roth. buds; Plants (2022): Authentication and market survey of sweet birch (Betula lenta L.) essential oil
