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FACT BRIEF

Does eucalyptus oil help cure hallucinations or take away symptoms of autism?

By Marlo Lee
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NO

A video posted on Facebook describes a little boy who has hallucinations about an alien living inside his body. The text story declares the hallucinations disappeared as soon as the boy started drinking an herbal tea that contained eucalyptus oil. 

Another little boy is mentioned briefly at the end of the video for purportedly having no continuing signs of autism after drinking the same herbal tea.

Eucalyptus oil does have destressing properties, according to a psychiatry professor, but there are no credible scientific publications proving eucalyptus oil can cure psychosis or autism.

Also, as little as 2 milliliters of an essential oil can cause significant issues for an infant.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Department of Health (Western Australia) Essential oils – Health warning
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.