Coumarin FAQ

Welcome to our Coumarin FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
Here we try to answer questions about Coumarin and are principally focused on the issues relevant to Coumarin skin allergy sufferers.

Please contact us if you have a question or answer about Coumarin that you would like to see here and certainly if we have got something wrong!

This page is split into 3 sections:

The Coumarin FAQ - all those Coumarin questions and answers.
The Coumarin Glossary - what do those terms mean?
The Coumarin Links - where can I go to find further information?

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The Coumarin FAQ

What Is Coumarin?

Where Is Coumarin Found?

What Does Coumarin Smell Like?

What Does Coumarin Look Like?

What Is Coumarin Used For?

What Has Coumarin Got To Do With Imperatorin?

Is Consumption of Coumarin Dangerous?

Does Coumarin Have A Chemical Name Or Formula?

What Health and Beauty Products Contain Coumarin?

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What is Coumarin?

Coumarin is a phytochemical with a vanilla like flavour. Coumarin is an oxygen heterocycle. Coumarin can occur either free or combined with the sugar glucose, coumarin glycoside.

Where is Coumarin found?

Coumarin is produced by some plants and is most notably found in Tonka bean, woodruff, lavender, sweet clover grass, celery and licorice. It is also found in citrus fruits, strawberries, apricots, cherries, and cinnamon.

What does Coumarin smell like?

It has a sweet scent, readily recognised as the scent of newly-mown lawns (as beloved by hay-fever sufferers).

What does Coumarin look like?

So you want to stare out your enemy? You'd better squint. This is what it looks like under a microscope.

What is Coumarin used for?

It's quite versatile is Coumarin.
In its natural state the plants that contain it seem to use it as some sort of pesticide.
Us humans use it for dye, fragrances (it's very big in the cosmetics industry), flavourings and rodent poison.
Medically it is also popular as it has the following properties: anti-coagulant (especially warfarin), blood thinning, anti-fungal, anti-tumour, antineoplastic.
It is a suspected carcinogenic and is therefore no longer an ingredient in cigarettes.
It's also very good for causing eczema on the human skin (itch, scratch) : (

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What has Coumarin got to do with Imperatorin?

Imperatorin is a furocoumarin and a phytochemical derived from the Malvaceae family of flowering plants that includes the mallows, cotton plants, okra, hibiscus, and hollyhocks.

Is consumption of Coumarin dangerous?

Despite its flavour enhancing properties, numerous studies, beginning in 1855, have indicated that coumarin has toxic effects on the nervous system, heart, blood vessels, and liver of animals as well as inducing cancerous tumours and toxic conditions in humans.
In 1954, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned coumarin in food, but not tobacco products, in the USA based on the results of animal research. Also, since 1954, many European countries have either banned or greatly restricted coumarin because of its toxic properties. In Norway, like the USA, coumarin has been banned in food, but not in tobacco.
For additional information from Skin Deep see http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/report.php?type=INGREDIENT&id=1117.

Does Coumarin have a chemical name or formula?

Yes. Coumarin is known chemically as Alpha Benzopyrone and has the formula C₉H₆O₂.
It is also sometimes referred to as Cumarin, Benzopyrone or Tonka Bean Camphor.

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What health and beauty products contain Coumarin?

Generally Coumarin can be found in the following product types:
- After Shave
- Anti-Perspirant/Deodorant
- Blush
- Body Firming Lotion
- Body Powder
- Cologne
- Moisturiser
- Nail Treatment
- Perfume
- Shaving Cream (Mens)
- Tanning (Sunless)
Please refer to Skin Deep's excellent report on products that contain Coumarin which includes products from the following brands:
- Alfred Dunhill
- Bourjois
- Cacharel
- Clarins
- Elizabeth Arden
- Emanuel Angaro
- Escada
- Estée Lauder
- Giorgio Armani
- Jennifer Lopez
- MAC
- Michael Kors
- Norelco
- Oscar De la Renta
- Urban Decay
- Versace
- Youth Dew

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The Coumarin Glossary

Anti-Coagulant
An anti-coagulant is a substance that prevents coagulation; that is, it stops blood from clotting.

Antineoplastic
An antineoplastic is a substance that inhibits or prevents the growth of neoplasms, checking the maturation and proliferation of malignant cells.

Furocoumarin

Some plants contain furocoumarins, which are photoactive compounds. Examples of furocoumarin-containing fruits and vegetables include limes, lemons, celery and parsley.
Exposure to a furocoumarin-containing substance does not cause a skin eruption in the absence of exposure to ultraviolet light.

Oxygen Heterocycle

We're not entirely sure what this is but think it's a chemical term for organic one-ring compounds containing oxygen.
Can you tell us what an oxygen heterocycle is?

Phytochemical

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties. There are more than a thousand known phytochemicals. It is well-known that plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves but recent research demonstrates that many phytochemicals can protect humans against diseases. Some of the well-known phytochemicals are lycopene in tomatoes, isoflavones in soy and flavanoids in fruits. Phytochemicals are not essential nutrients and are not required by the human body for sustaining life.

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Warfarin

Warfarin (also known under the brand name Coumadin) is an anticoagulant medication that can be administered orally. It is used for the prophylaxis of thrombosis and embolism in many disorders. Its activity has to be monitored by frequent blood testing for the international normalized ratio (INR).
Warfarin was originally developed as a rat poison, and is still widely used as such, although warfarin-resistant rats are becoming more common.

Coumarin Links

Coumarin - see what it looks like under a microscope.

http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?coumarin - Coumarin information at the Centre for Cancer Education Online Medical Dictionary.

Phytochemicals.info - Coumarin information at www.phytochemicals.info.

Fragrance and Chemical Sensitivity Support Group - a great site for researching fragrance allergies.

Reference.com - a great, easily searchable source of information.

Skin Deep - this is an excellent US-based resource detailing information and news about the safety of popular health and beauty brands.

Wikipedia - The free encyclopaedia.

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