Cilantro Allergy and Essential Oil: What Is and Isn't Known

If cilantro makes your lips swell or your throat tighten, the oil from the same plant is not a harmless alternative to the herb, and nobody has measured whether it is. We looked for studies on allergy to cilantro leaf essential oil and found none. What exists is a small set of case reports on coriander as a food, a spice and a workplace dust. This page lays out what those reports show, what they cannot show, and why "I just do not like the taste" is a separate question.

Cilantro Essential Oil bottle

Cilantro Essential Oil

Our own Cilantro Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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Which problem do you have?

What the coriander allergy reports show

Every report below involves seed, spice powder or whole spice, not leaf essential oil, so applying any of it to our oil is an inference.

A hidden ingredient. Brussino et al. (BMJ Case Reports, 2018) describe one woman, 29, with birch and hazel pollen rhinitis, who had anaphylaxis after a craft beer flavored with coriander. Skin prick tests to coriander seeds were positive and specific IgE to coriander was 2.12 kUA/L. She was also IgE-positive to Bet v 1 (3.69 kUA/L), the major birch pollen allergen, which fits her pollen history. In an oral challenge with crushed coriander seed given at 5, 50 and 100 mg, she reacted at 50 mg with lip swelling, hives and throat tightness, needing intramuscular epinephrine. The authors report only coriander was tested, no other Apiaceae spice, so the case says nothing about cross-reaction. It is one patient, with no control results reported.

A work-related sensitization. Ebo et al. (Acta Clinica Belgica, 2006) report a spice-factory worker with anaphylaxis from coriander in a meal and with hives, angioedema, rhinoconjunctivitis and bronchospasm while handling coriander and fenugreek. Skin tests, specific IgE and basophil activation tests were positive, healthy controls negative, and the authors concluded his history suggested sensitization by occupational exposure. The two spices did not cross-react in their inhibition tests. For our readers the useful part is the route: handling and breathing the material, not only eating it, was enough for this man.

A curry that was really a spice mix. Pérez Bustamante et al. (Allergologia et Immunopathologia, 2011) studied a 45-year-old woman with seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis whose mouth itched and whose face, palms and neckline reddened after curry. Prick tests were positive to curry extracts, coriander and three pollens, including mugwort. Specific IgE was positive to aniseed, dill, caraway, fennel, cumin and coriander (the coriander value, 0.5 kU/L, was the lowest of the positives, at the authors' cutoff of 0.35), but negative to parsley, celery and carrot. Inhibition tests showed cross-reactivity between curry and cumin or coriander, and with several pollens. The authors note coriander, parsley and caraway have been reported as hidden allergens in a mugwort-linked pattern they call celery-mugwort-spice syndrome.

Two of those details deserve a plain reading. First, the family link is real but uneven: in that patient celery and carrot were negative while several spices were positive, so "allergic to one Apiaceae, avoid all" is not what the data say, and neither is "celery-tolerant, therefore fine". Second, the thread in two of the three reports is pollen: birch in one, mugwort in another; the spice-factory worker is the exception, and his route was workplace exposure. A pollen allergy plus unexplained reactions to spiced food is the pattern worth taking to an allergist. We also found citations for a 2001 report of occupational protein contact dermatitis from coriander (Kanerva and Soini, Contact Dermatitis) but only its citation, with no abstract, so we do not describe its findings.

Does any of that reach the essential oil?

Nobody knows. Reasoning from the sources, the allergens in these reports are proteins: Pérez Bustamante's immunoblots found IgE-binding bands between roughly 30 and 92 kDa, which are protein sizes, far above the small volatile molecules a steam distillation mostly carries over. If so, a distilled oil might hold little of the protein allergen, but that is a chemistry argument with no measurement behind it, and the oil's own aldehydes can behave as skin allergens by a different route (the sensitivity guide explains how). Whether someone allergic to seed reacts to leaf is also unknown to us; none of the reports tested leaf. Absence of data is not reassurance.

What we would do in your position

  1. If you have had any systemic reaction to coriander or cilantro, or you are allergic to birch or mugwort pollen and react to spiced foods, ask an allergist before opening the bottle. The reports above were worked up with skin prick tests and specific IgE, which are the allergist's tools. Bring the oil's name (Coriandrum sativum, leaf) and our published Certificate of Analysis from the shop page.
  2. Do not use a home patch test as your allergy check. In the beer case, 50 mg of ingested seed was enough to cause throat tightness; a rash-and-wait forearm test is designed for a skin reaction, not that kind of response.
  3. If you have no history and decide to try the oil, dilute (0.5% to 2% on our shop page, with the low end preferred), patch test, and stop at the first itch, swelling or wheeze.
  4. For wheeze, throat tightness or swelling, call your local emergency number rather than the shop or a search engine.

Who to see, and what to bring

An allergist (or an immunologist, depending on where you live) is the professional for food and inhalant allergy; a dermatologist is the one for skin reactions that recur or blister. Bring a written account of each reaction: what you had, how soon after, which symptoms, and whether it came with pollen season. The Spanish case above reached its answer by comparing a spice mix against single spices and pollens, which is the sort of reasoning a history makes possible and a guess does not. If your doctor asks what is in the oil, the answer is one ingredient, cilantro leaf essential oil, undiluted, with no carrier or additive, per our shop page.

Limits

We sell only the leaf oil, with no allergist, no customer reaction data and no clinical testing. Three case reports cannot give a rate, and a single spice-allergy report in a pollen-allergic person says little about someone with no allergy at all. The main safety guide lists the other groups who should ask a professional first.

The honest summary is a gap: coriander food allergy is documented, mostly in people with pollen allergy, and allergy to the leaf essential oil is simply unstudied. If you are inside the first group, the allergist's answer is worth more than ours.

Cilantro Essential Oil bottle

Cilantro Essential Oil

Cilantro Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading