Biological Activities of Essential Oils: From Plant Chemoecology to Traditional Healing Systems.

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Abstract

Essential oils are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons and their oxygenated derivatives arising from two different isoprenoid pathways. Essential oils are produced by glandular trichomes and other secretory structures, specialized secretory tissues mainly diffused onto the surface of plant organs, particularly flowers and leaves, thus exerting a pivotal ecological role in plant. In addition, essential oils have been used, since ancient times, in many different traditional healing systems all over the world, because of their biological activities. Many preclinical studies have documented antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of essential oils in a number of cell and animal models, also elucidating their mechanism of action and pharmacological targets, though the paucity of in human studies limits the potential of essential oils as effective and safe phytotherapeutic agents. More well-designed clinical trials are needed in order to ascertain the real efficacy and safety of these plant products.

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Antimicrobial agents from plants: antibacterial activity of plant volatile oils.

H. J. D. Dorman, S G Deans (2000)

The volatile oils of black pepper [Piper nigrum L. (Piperaceae)], clove [Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & Perry (Myrtaceae)], geranium [Pelargonium graveolens L'Herit (Geraniaceae)], nutmeg [Myristica fragrans Houtt. (Myristicaceae), oregano [Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum (Link) Letsw. (Lamiaceae)] and thyme [Thymus vulgaris L. (Lamiaceae)] were assessed for antibacterial activity against 25 different genera of bacteria. These included animal and plant pathogens, food poisoning and spoilage bacteria. The volatile oils exhibited considerable inhibitory effects against all the organisms under test while their major components demonstrated various degrees of growth inhibition.

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NF-kappaB in cancer: from innocent bystander to major culprit.

Michael Karin, Yixue Cao, Florian Greten … (2002)

Nuclear factor of kappaB (NF-kappaB) is a sequence-specific transcription factor that is known to be involved in the inflammatory and innate immune responses. Although the importance of NF-KB in immunity is undisputed, recent evidence indicates that NF-kappaB and the signalling pathways that are involved in its activation are also important for tumour development. NF-kappaB should therefore receive as much attention from cancer researchers as it has already from immunologists.