Cedrol

Aroma and sensory profile

Cedrol is what remains of a cedar closet after the fresh wood smell has gone. Fragrance references type it woody with low odor strength and describe it neat as cedarwood, woody, dry, sweet, and soft, with a flavor of woody, amber, floral, cedar, ambrette, musk, and powdery [1]; an industrial encyclopedia compiled by PubChem calls it woody-earthy [2]. Against cedrene, its hydrocarbon partner in cedarwood oil, it is softer, drier, and far more persistent, the fixative half of the pair. It is a white crystalline solid melting at 77 to 86 °C [1], sold as crystals, and it carries the faintly leathery, powdery depth that perfumers reach for in woody and amber bases.

The molecule is a tricyclic sesquiterpene alcohol with five stereocenters and it is chiral. The natural material is (+)-cedrol, the form carried under the FEMA flavor listing [1]. No panel description of (−)-cedrol was found, so no claim about how the two enantiomers differ in odor is made here.

Effects and research

Cedrol has controlled human inhalation data, which is rare on this site. In 26 healthy volunteers breathing vaporized cedrol at 14.2 micrograms per liter through a face mask, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and respiratory rate fell and parasympathetic activity and baroreceptor sensitivity rose compared with blank air [5]. Because that could be an effect of smell, the same group repeated it in people who had undergone total laryngectomy and breathe through a neck stoma, bypassing the nose: cedrol delivered directly to the lower airway still lowered blood pressure, raised baroreceptor sensitivity, and shifted the autonomic balance toward parasympathetic activity [6], and increased blood flow to the hippocampus on both sides [7]. The effect, in other words, does not require olfaction.

The topical data are from mice. Cedrol from Platycladus orientalis leaves applied at 30 milligrams per milliliter for 21 days grew hair to 11.07 millimeters against 8.87 for control and 9.94 for minoxidil, with heavier hair mass [8], and a 2026 study traced the effect in an alopecia areata model to shifting macrophages away from the inflammatory M1 state [11]. In rats, oral cedrol at 30 milligrams per kilogram for 14 days reduced white cell counts, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin-1 beta and raised antioxidant enzymes against lipopolysaccharide challenge [9]. A 2025 review catalogued anticancer mechanisms in cell and animal models, including reactive oxygen species generation and pro-death autophagy, without clinical data [10].

Natural sources

Cedrol is a conifer heartwood terpene. Fenaroli's handbook records it in the wood of several conifers, particularly cypress and cedar, naming Cedrus atlantica, Cupressus sempervirens, and Juniperus virginiana, and the Kirk-Othmer encyclopedia adds Texas cedarwood oil from Juniperus mexicana and Chinese cedarwood oil from Cupressus funebris [2]. Fragrance databases log it at 22.2 percent in Virginia cedarwood oil, 19.1 percent in Texas cedarwood oil, 10.4 percent in Atlas cedarwood oil, and 9.6 percent in Chinese cedarwood oil, with 2 to 4 percent in cypress and cypress cone oils, 1 percent in an Artemisia flower oil, and traces in angelica seed, basil, cascarilla, citronella, and clary sage [1]. It is also reported in ginger, which supplied the cedrol for one of the hair-growth studies [12], and in the leaves of Platycladus orientalis, the Chinese arborvitae [8]. In cannabis cedrol is a trace sesquiterpene, occasionally reported and more often absent.

Boiling point and vaporization

PubChem compiles cedrol's boiling point as 286 °C from the European Food Safety Authority's 2009 flavoring evaluation [2]; fragrance references give 285 to 287 °C at 760 mmHg [1]. This profile uses 286 °C (547 °F), replacing the 265 °C the site previously listed, for which no source was found. Cedrol is a solid melting at 77 to 86 °C [1], so in a cool sample it does not evaporate at all; it dissolves into the surrounding oil and stays, which is the basis of its fixative use and of the decades-long persistence of cedar chests. The human inhalation studies show that at a vaporizer's temperature it is nonetheless volatile enough to reach the airways in physiologically active amounts [5][6]. No thermal degradation study of cedrol was found.

Safety and regulation

Cedrol is not listed by name in the FDA flavoring tables at 21 CFR 172.515; its flavor use rests on FEMA GRAS number 4503 for (+)-cedrol [1] and on the 2009 European Food Safety Authority evaluation that PubChem records [2]. The Research Institute for Fragrance Materials reviewed it in 2008 and assessed it in 2022 [3][4]. No cancer classification applies.

Its hazard record is empty apart from water. Under Europe's classification inventory, the only code above threshold is toxicity to aquatic life with long-lasting effects, at 99.8 percent of notifications, with no skin sensitization, irritation, flammability, or aspiration code and no signal word [2]. The human inhalation studies reported no adverse effects at the concentrations used [5][6]. The one practical note follows from its pharmacology: it measurably lowers blood pressure and heart rate by inhalation, a point to remember in anyone already hypotensive.

Industries and uses

Fragrance: cedrol is a foundation cedarwood material and fixative in woody, amber, and fougère accords, sold as crystals and as the basis of cedryl acetate and cedryl methyl ether [1]. Culinary: it holds FEMA GRAS status and contributes soft woody-amber nuances at trace levels [1][2]. Aromatherapy: cedarwood and cypress oils are its carriers, and it is one of the few aromatherapy claims on this site with human physiological data behind it [5][6]. Cosmetics: the mouse hair-growth results have drawn formulator interest in cedrol for scalp products, still preclinical [8].