CAS 106-24-1 · C₁₀H₁₈O · Acyclic Monoterpene Alcohol

⚜️ Geraniol (CAS 106-24-1) – combines the classic rose aroma with diverse biological activities. It is an acyclic monoterpene alcohol compound naturally occurring in over 160 plant essential oils such as rose oil, citronella oil, and lemongrass oil. It appears as a colorless to pale yellow oily liquid with a mild, sweet rose odor accompanied by apple- and strawberry-like fruity undertones. As the core ingredient of rose-type fragrances and an indispensable blending material, geraniol demonstrates irreplaceable strategic value in daily-use flavors, food flavors, pharmaceutical intermediates, and biological pesticides due to its unique aroma characteristics and reactive allylic alcohol structure. Its production mainly relies on separation and purification from natural essential oils and chemical synthesis, with market demand closely linked to global trends in consumer upgrading of daily chemicals, quality innovation in the food industry, and green agriculture development. Based on the industrial attributes of this compound, this article systematically analyzes its global market dynamics and application prospects, providing strategic reference for industry participants. Recent studies quantify its antifungal MIC value at 1.25 mM, repellent rate against brown planthopper at 91.8%; microbial fermentation yield has exceeded 13.2 g/L (E. coli). As a key intermediate for vitamins A/E and ionones, it is also an irreplaceable core terpene raw material for green agriculture and high-end daily chemicals.

01 Core Application Fields, Characteristics, and Synthesis Processes

The market demand for Geraniol (CAS: 106-24-1) is highly concentrated in four major areas: daily-use flavors, food flavors, pharmaceutical intermediates, and biological pesticides. Its pleasant aroma, good solubility, and derivatizable chemical structure are the core advantages driving demand growth.

Excellent aroma quality: It has a rich, natural rose scent, sweet and diffusive, and is the main component of floral fragrances such as rose and geranium. It has excellent mutual solubility with common spices like citronellol and phenylethyl alcohol, acting as a sweetener and harmonizer, significantly enhancing the naturalness and layering of fragrances.

Strong physicochemical adaptability: Liquid at room temperature, boiling point approx. 229-230°C, flash point approx. 101°C (actual values fluctuate between 76-112°C depending on standards). Easily soluble in ethanol, ether, propylene glycol, and most nonvolatile oils, slightly soluble in water. These properties make it perfectly adaptable to various daily chemical and food processing media such as alcohol systems and oil systems, facilitating industrial application.

Outstanding derivative value: The molecule contains an active allylic alcohol double bond and a hydroxyl group, enabling efficient synthesis of highvalueadded spices and key intermediates for vitamins A and E through esterification, oxidation, isomerization, etc., such as geranyl acetate, citronellal, citronellol, citral, and ionones. The industrial chain is highly extensible, making it a core hub connecting natural essential oils and highend fine chemicals.

Synthesis Processes

Currently, the industrial supply of geraniol mainly adopts two routes: natural extraction and chemical synthesis.

Natural extraction: The traditional and mainstream process involves separating geraniol from natural essential oils rich in it, such as citronella oil (30%40%) and Indian rosescented grass oil (up to 95%). A common method is to add anhydrous calcium chloride to the essential oil, utilizing the property of geraniol forming a crystalline derivative with calcium chloride for separation. After decomposition of the crystals with water, the product is refined by steam distillation to obtain pure geraniol.

Chemical synthesis: Industrial largescale production also uses chemical synthesis to compensate for the shortage of natural resources. Main routes include:

Citral reduction method: Citral is reduced with sodium amalgam in a dilute acetic acidethanol solution.

Myrcene method: Using myrcene as raw material, through chlorination, esterification, and saponification, a mixture of geraniol and nerol is obtained, and then highgrade geraniol is separated by precision fractionation.

αPinene method: Synthesizing linalool from αpinene, followed by isomerization to produce highquality geraniol.

In recent years, industry technology upgrading has focused on green separation and biotransformation. On one hand, efficient, solventfree physical separation technologies such as molecular distillation and supercritical CO₂ extraction are being developed to replace traditional chemical separation methods, meeting the demand of the highend natural market. Jiangxi, Yunnan, and Fujian industrial clusters have formed standardized isolation bases with purity up to 99.5%. On the other hand, metabolic engineering and enzymatic catalysis are used to construct engineered strains for direct fermentation production of geraniol, or to catalyze precursors like citral via bioenzymatic methods, achieving mild reaction conditions and high selectivity in biological manufacturing processes. Due to stringent requirements for impurities (e.g., pesticide residues, heavy metals, isomer ratios) in downstream daily chemical, food, and pharmaceutical fields, manufacturers must establish a fullprocess quality control system from raw material traceability to finished product inspection, using gas chromatography (GC) to precisely monitor purity and impurity profiles, ensuring products comply with international and domestic standards such as FEMA, FDA, and GB.

02 Product Market Pattern and Regional Characteristics

The global market for Geraniol (CAS: 106-24-1) exhibits a regional division pattern of “Europe, America leading highend brands and fragrance creation, China leading natural extraction and largescale production, and AsiaPacific driving consumption growth.” Market competition focuses on product aroma authenticity, purity stability, and compliance qualifications.

Market pattern: The global geraniol market size continues to expand steadily with the robust development of the daily chemical and food industries. Market participants show a hierarchical distribution: European, American, and Japanese multinational enterprises dominate the highend application market. Leveraging brand advantages and fragrance technology, they purchase highpurity geraniol for creating highend perfumes, cosmetics, and food flavors, occupying the high end of the value chain.

Chinese enterprises occupy a dominant position in the midtohigh end market by virtue of natural essential oil resources and largescale production advantages. Provinces such as Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Fujian, with abundant plant resources like citronella, rose, and litsea cubeba, have formed complete industrial clusters from raw material cultivation, essential oil extraction to geraniol isolation. These enterprises not only meet domestic demand for daily chemicals and food processing but also export as core raw materials to Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. Small and mediumsized enterprises focus on industrialgrade or lowpurity products, relying on cost advantages to participate in lowend market competition.

Regional characteristics: Europe, America, and Japan are core consumption areas for highend flavors and fragrances, with demand concentrated in highquality daily fragrances, premium food flavors, and pharmaceutical R&D, imposing strict requirements on aroma quality, heavy metal residues, and compliance certifications such as REACH and FDA. China and the AsiaPacific market are the world’s main production bases and the most dynamic growth engines. China has a complete spice industry chain, meeting the domestic demand for natural, highquality food and daily fragrances driven by the rise of new tea drinks, prepared foods, and domestic cosmetics brands, while also consolidating its position as a major global exporter of geraniol.

Emerging markets (e.g., Southeast Asia, Middle East, Latin America) are gradually releasing demand for costeffective food and daily fragrances with the development of local daily chemical and food industries, becoming new growth spaces for small and mediumsized enterprises to expand overseas business.

03 Regulatory, Environmental, and Safety Considerations

As a multifunctional spice chemical widely used in daily chemicals, food, and pharmaceutical fields, the production, trade, and use of Geraniol (CAS: 106-24-1) are strictly regulated in major global markets.

International regulations and compliance requirements

Food safety: Geraniol is certified as a safe food flavor by FEMA (No. 2507) in the US, permitted as a food flavor under EU Regulation 1334/2008, and also stipulated as an allowed food flavor in China’s GB 2760 standard.

Registration and standards: As a chemical, its production and export must meet REACH (EU) registration requirements. Product standards must comply with FCC (Food Chemicals Codex), JECFA, or Chinese Pharmacopoeia standards, with clear specifications for alcohol content, refractive index, acid value, etc.

Health and physical hazards

According to safety data, geraniol is mildly irritating to skin and eyes (hazard code R36/37/38). It is somewhat flammable, with a flash point of about 101°C, and can absorb oxygen in the air, leading to discoloration and loss of aroma; storage conditions require attention. Appropriate protective equipment is recommended during handling.

Storage and transportation requirements

The product should be stored sealed in a cool, dry place, protected from light and air. Recommended storage temperature: 28°C or ambient, protected from light. Due to its natural properties, high temperature or prolonged exposure may cause oxidative deterioration and affect aroma quality. International transport must comply with classification and labeling requirements based on its flash point and flammability.

Environmental aspects

As a plantderived product, its environmental friendliness is superior to purely petrochemicalbased chemicals. However, recovery of extraction solvents (e.g., petroleum ether), treatment of highconcentration organic wastewater, and recycling of natural plant residues are key environmental supervision points. Leading enterprises are promoting solvent recovery technologies, adopting physical separation processes (e.g., molecular distillation) to replace some chemical methods, and exploring bioenzymatic extraction techniques to reduce waste generation and environmental load, aligning with green chemistry and sustainable development concepts.

04 Future Outlook

The market prospects of Geraniol (CAS: 106-24-1) are deeply bound to three major trends: global daily chemical consumption upgrading, naturalization of the food industry, and iteration of green chemical technologies. Demand growth exhibits strong resilience and expansion potential.

Demandside drivers

Daily chemical consumption upgrading: Global consumers’ increasing demand for natural, safe, and personalized perfumes, cosmetics, and personal care products drives the need for natural and “natureidentical” aroma ingredients. As the soul ingredient of rose scents, geraniol’s market position is solid, especially with deepening applications in clean beauty and highend perfumery.

Naturalization of the food industry: Consumers’ pursuit of “clean label” food additives pushes food manufacturers to switch from synthetic to natural or natureidentical flavors. Geraniol is widely used in fruit and spice flavors such as apple, strawberry, peach, cinnamon, and ginger, with expanding applications in new tea drinks, functional foods, and prepared dishes.

Green agriculture and pharmaceutical expansion: Studies show geraniol has biological activities such as antibacterial and insect repellent properties. In green agriculture, its potential as a botanical biopesticide is being tapped for developing environmentally friendly crop protectants. In the pharmaceutical field, as a key intermediate for synthesizing vitamins A, E, and ionones, its market demand correlates positively with the growth of nutritional supplements.

Supply chain traceability: In the context of global industrial chain restructuring, downstream brand companies increasingly value raw material transparency and traceability. Enterprises with proprietary raw material bases and quality control from the source (such as some domestic leaders) will gain stronger bargaining power and customer stickiness.

Major industry challenges

Resource and technical barriers: The highend market demands extremely high aroma fidelity and component purity. Natural extraction is limited by plant resources, origin, and harvest season, leading to quality fluctuations; chemical synthesis faces technical bottlenecks such as difficult byproduct separation and control of cistrans isomer (geraniol/nerol) ratios. Stable supply of highpurity (≥99%) natural grade products remains a challenge.

Quality stability risk: Geraniol is chemically active, prone to oxidative discoloration and loss of aroma in air, requiring extremely high antioxidation technology and sealing processes during packaging, storage, and transportation, increasing fullchain quality control costs and loss risks.

Natural resource constraints: Routes relying on natural plant extraction face pressures from land resources, climate change, pests, and sustainable harvesting. Raw material prices are susceptible to fluctuations in agricultural markets, challenging cost control and supply chain stability.

International trade and compliance barriers: Requirements for pesticide residues, plasticizers, allergens, etc., vary across markets and are dynamically updated, increasing compliance costs and access risks in crossborder trade.

Response strategies: Enterprises need to focus on three directions

Technical level: Continuously optimize highpurity natural extraction processes, combine physical techniques such as molecular distillation and crystallization to improve product purity and aroma quality; increase R&D investment in biotechnology, lay out green new routes for synthesizing geraniol by fermentation, reducing dependence on natural resources; develop microencapsulation or antioxidant formulations to enhance product stability in end applications.

Supply chain and compliance level: Extend upstream by establishing standardized raw material cultivation bases to ensure stable supply and quality traceability; build a global compliance information database to quickly respond to dynamic updates of FEMA, FDA, REACH, GB 2760, etc., breaking through international market access barriers.

Application level: Strengthen indepth cooperation with downstream flavor companies, food enterprises, and daily chemical brands; provide integrated solutions from customized specifications (e.g., specific isomer ratios, allergenfree processing) to application formulation suggestions, assisting clients in optimizing product aroma and cost, transforming from “raw material producer” to “fragrance solution service provider.”

International Regulations & Standards

FEMA 2507 (US food flavor) · JECFA purity specifications

EU 1334/2008 food flavor · REACH registration · Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009

China GB 2760 food additive · GMP pharmaceutical intermediate · hazardous chemicals safety management

Hazards and Storage/Transport

Flash point ~101°C, somewhat flammable; R36/37/38 (irritating to eyes, respiratory system, skin). Store in a cool, dark, nitrogensealed environment; recommended storage 28°C or ambient, protected from light. UN dangerous goods number UN 3272 (flammable liquid, packaging category III).

✦Focusing on Geraniol·Industrial Capability Cluster ✦

Process Expertise

Mature esterification-oxidation and biocatalysis processes; high-purity products; flexible production capacity ranging from kilogram to hundred-ton scale.

 Application Data Support

Third-party test reports can be coordinated; compliant with FEMA/GB/REACH standards; supporting R&D for pharmaceutical/agricultural clients.

Green Supply Chain

Coordination between natural sourcing bases and synthesis production lines; compliant transportation solutions.

Customized Derivatives

Geranyl ester series, microencapsulated powder/liquid stabilized derivatives, adaptable to different end formulations.

R&D Collaboration

Seamless transition from laboratory samples to commercial mass production; assisting clients in optimizing processes and impurity profiles.

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⚜️ The scientific data cited in this white paper is sourced from:：Inflammopharmacology 2024, Front. Pharmacol. 2024, Pest Manag. Sci. 2024, Biotechnol. Adv. 2025，as well as the Global Chemical Inventory. The purity and activity data mentioned in the text are objective statements based on publicly available literature. Product specifications and compliance documents for Geraniol (CAS 106-24-1) shall be subject to the latest COA/MSDS.

Keywords: Geraniol · 106-24-1 · Acyclic monoterpenol · Rose alcohol · Citral · Vitamin A intermediate · Ionone · Biopesticide · Repellency rate · MIC · Anti-inflammatory · Microbial fermentation · Green synthesis · Pharmaceutical grade · FEMA 2507 · GB 2760 · Isomer ratio · Dangerous goods UN3272