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Many people are confused as to why a natural, medicinal product such as eucalyptus oil needs to be labeled as a poison. We have penned this blog to explain this in detail, and to assure you that as long as Kochii Eucalyptus Oil is used correctly (as with any product), it poses no threat.

Paracelsus (1493-1541) the Swiss physician whose radical ideas influenced the development of medicine wrote “all things are poisons. It is only the dose which make a thing poison“.  Even water and salt which are normally harmless may cause illness or death if taken in excess.

Eucalyptus oil is a highly concentrated liquid and needs to be diluted for all of its major uses. If ingested in large amounts, Eucalyptus oil can be harmful.

Currently, Australia is the only country in the world that requires a product containing more than 25% eucalyptus oil to be labelled as a poison, and to have a child-lock cap. Products containing less than 25% eucalyptus oil do not need to adhere to the aforementioned.

Eucalyptus oil is often added to cough lozenges, cough syrups, toothpastes, mouth wash and in some cases to food. Diluted in small quantities it can be ingested safely in fact, the The German Commission E Monograph for eucalyptus oil recommends a daily oral dose of 300–600 mg, and 5–20% oil with a base of vegetable oil or paraffin for dermal applications https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/eucalyptus-oil. It’s important to keep in mind that Kochii has a much higher cineole concentrate than most eucalyptus oils so we do not recommend ingesting in it’s pure form.

In Australia, there have been no reported deaths linked to eucalyptus oil poisoning in over 50 years. Whereas common household products such as paracetamol, oil of wintergreen and methyl salicylate have proven to be much more dangerous.

Kochii, by law needs to label all products over 25ml as poison but please know, the product itself is natural, medicinal and very safe as long as it’s used correctly.

And by the way eucalyptus oil is also flammable so store it safely to prevent accidents of any kind.