Botanical species · safety record

Juniperus communis

The EFSA Compendium of Botanicals holds 20 constituent measurements and 2 adverse-effect records for Juniperus communis. This page reports what those source records contain and how to reach them. It carries no effect estimate, no dose and no recommendation.

Accepted name in source: Juniperus communis L.

20Constituent measurements

2Safety records

12Cited sources

548Licensed products (Canada)

Regulatory presence

Health Canada's Licensed Natural Health Products Database holds 548 licensed products naming Juniperus communis as a medicinal ingredient, matched on the exact Latin binomial. A licence records that a product met the regulator's requirements for sale in Canada. It is not evidence that the product works.

Extract types on licence

Dry
Extract Type TBA
Fresh
solid

Source material stated

Berries
Berry
Berry powder
Berry/Berries
Cone berries
Edible fruit part
Fresh berries
Fresh ripe berries

What the records describe

Constituents measured

Plant parts

Preparations

Effect types

Target tissues

Recorded constituents

What analytical work has found in this species, at which plant part and preparation. A measured constituent is a fact about material, not about effect.

Substance	Plant part	Preparation	Concentration	Analytical method	Source
Cinnamaldehyde	Aerial part of plants	Super-critical gas extraction	2.68 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Deoxypodophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≥ 37.1 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Deoxypodophyllotoxin	Aerial part of plants	Solvent extraction	—	Chromatographic tests	Resolve DOI
Deoxypodophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	2.1 Milligram/gram	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	Resolve DOI
Deoxypodophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≤ 78.1 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Diterpenes	Aerial part of plants	Solvent extraction	—	Chromatographic tests	Resolve DOI
Isocupressic acid	Leaves	Solvent extraction	2.05 Percent	Gaschromatography (GC)	Resolve DOI
Isocupressic acid	Aerial part of plants	Solvent extraction	—	Chromatographic tests	Resolve DOI
Myrcene	Leaves	Essential oil	29 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Podophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≤ 12.5 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Podophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	0.02 Milligram/gram	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	Resolve DOI
Podophyllotoxin	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≥ 2.2 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Umbelliferone	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≤ 88.3 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Umbelliferone	Leaves	Solvent extraction	≥ 1.45 Milligram/100 gram	Standard Chromatographic tests (paper- thin layer- and column chromatography)	Resolve DOI
Deoxypodophyllotoxin	Aerial part of plants	Solvent extraction	—	Chromatographic tests	No resolvable identifier
Isocupressic acid	Aerial part of plants	Solvent extraction	—	Chromatographic tests	No resolvable identifier
Myrcene	Fruit unspecified	Essential oil	8.5 Percent	Gaschromatography (GC)	No resolvable identifier
Myrcene	Fruit unspecified	Essential oil	≤ 19.6 Percent	GC-MS	No resolvable identifier
Myrcene	Fruit unspecified	Solvent extraction	5.4 Percent	Gaschromatography (GC)	No resolvable identifier
Myrcene	Fruit unspecified	Essential oil	≥ 4.8 Percent	GC-MS	No resolvable identifier

Recorded adverse effects

Adverse effects reported in the source literature, most often in animal or laboratory models at a stated preparation and dose.

Effect	Target tissue	Plant part	Preparation	Test organism	Test type	Source
Reproductive	Uterus	Unspecified	Solvent extraction	Rat (as animal)	Reproduction toxicity	No resolvable identifier
Not stated	Uterus	Leaves	—	Cattle (as animal)	Reproduction toxicity	No resolvable identifier

Cited sources

The literature the compendium cites for this species. Metatron Health has no relationship with these authors or journals and earns nothing from citing them.

Och, Marek., Och, Anna., Ciesla, Lukasz., Kubrak, Tomasz., Pecio, Lukasz., Stochmal, Anna., Kocki, Janusz., Bogucka-Kocka, Anna. Study of cytotoxic activity, podophyllotoxin, and deoxypodophyllotoxin content in selected Juniperus species cultivated in Poland . Pharmaceutical biology, 2015, vol. 53, no. 6, p. 831-837. DOI
Dahmane, Dahmane., Dob, Tahar., Chelghoum, Chaabane. Essential oil composition and enantiomeric distribution of some monoterpenoid components of Juniperus communis L. from Algeria . Journal of essential oil research, 2016, vol. 28, no. 4, p. 348-356. DOI
Proenca da Cunha, A., Roque, Odete L. Rodrigues. Chemical composition of the essential oil of Juniperus communis, variety Nana. Revista portuguesa de farmacia, 1989, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 18-20.
Butkiene, Rita., Nivinskiene, Ona., Mockute, Danute. Chemical composition of unripe and ripe berry essential oils of Juniperus communis L. growing wild in Vilnius district. Chemija, 2004, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 57-63.
Renouard, Sullivan., Lopez, Tatiana., Hendrawati, Oktavia., Dupre, Patricia., Doussot, Joel., Falguieres, Annie., Ferroud, Clotilde., Hagege, Daniel., Lamblin, Frederic., Laine, Eric., Hano, Christophe. Podophyllotoxin and Deoxypodophyllotoxin in Juniperus bermudiana and 12 Other Juniperus Species: Optimization of Extraction, Method Validation, and Quantification . Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 2011, vol. 59, no. 15, p. 8101-8107. DOI
Och, Marek., Och, Anna., Ciesla, Lukasz., Kocki, Janusz., Bogucka-Kocka, Anna. Screening Various Juniperus Species for the Occurrence of Umbelliferone by Means of Bivariate Multiple Development Thin-Layer Chromatography . Jpc-journal of planar chromatography-modern tlc, 2013, vol. 26, no. 5, p. 421-426. DOI
Carpenter, Caitlyn D., O'Neill, Taryn., Picot, Nadia., Johnson, John A., Robichaud, Gilles A., Webster, Duncan., Gray, Christopher A. Anti-mycobacterial natural products from the Canadian medicinal plant Juniperus communis . Journal of ethnopharmacology, 2012, vol. 143, no. 2, p. 695-700. DOI
Gardner, DR., James, LF. Pine needle abortion in cattle: Analysis of isocupressic acid in North American gymnosperms . Phytochemical analysis, 1999, vol. 10, no. 3, p. 132-136. DOI
[Anonymous]. Final report on the safety assessment of Juniperus communis Extract, Juniperus oxycedrus Extract, Juniperus oxycedrus Tar, Juniperus phoenicea extract, and Juniperus virginiana Extract. . International journal of toxicology, 2001, vol. 20 Suppl 2, p. 41-56.
Benzina, Sami., Harquail, Jason., Jean, Stephanie., Beauregard, Annie-Pier., Colquhoun, Caitlyn D., Carroll, Madison., Bos, Allyson., Gray, Christopher A., Robichaud, Gilles A. Deoxypodophyllotoxin Isolated from Juniperus communis Induces Apoptosis in Breast Cancer Cells . Anti-cancer agents in medicinal chemistry, 2015, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 79-88.
Mouahid, Adil., Dufour, Cyril., Badens, Elisabeth. Supercritical CO2 extraction from endemic Corsican plants; comparison of oil composition and extraction yield with hydrodistillation method . Journal of co2 utilization, 2017, vol. 20, p. 263-273. DOI
Gardner, DR., Panter, KE., James, LF., Stegelmeier, BL. Abortifacient effects of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and common juniper (Juniperus communis) on cattle . Veterinary and human toxicology, 1998, vol. 40, no. 5, p. 260-263.

Boundary

A constituent measurement is a fact about material at a stated preparation, not a statement about what that material does in a person. An adverse-effect or genotoxicity record is an observation reported in a source, most often in an animal or laboratory model. Neither is a Metatron Health conclusion about causality, human risk or benefit, and the absence of a record is not proof that a preparation is safe. Nothing here is diagnosis, prescribing or individual medical care.

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