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Major bioactivities and mechanism of action of essential oils and their components
Author(s) -
Saad Nizar Y.,
Muller Christian D.,
Lobstein Annelise
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
flavour and fragrance journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.393
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1099-1026
pISSN - 0882-5734
DOI - 10.1002/ffj.3165
Subject(s) - mechanism (biology) , antimicrobial , chemistry , cytotoxicity , computational biology , mechanism of action , essential oil , identification (biology) , mode of action , biology , biochemistry , in vitro , ecology , philosophy , organic chemistry , epistemology , chromatography
ABSTRACT Essential oils are gaining increasing interest for their antimicrobial and antiviral properties, as well as for their preventive and therapeutic actions against many human pathologies. Herein, we present an overview on new discoveries in essential oil research, discussing antimicrobial activity, as well as immunomodulatory, anti‐apoptotic, anti‐angiogenic and anti‐tumoural properties. In addition, we emphasize recent advances in the identification of bioactive components and understanding of their mechanism of action. We discuss their molecular diversity and wide spectrum of activity as well as their structure–activity relationships and capability of targeting paradoxical responses triggered by different genes and pathways. Finally, we emphasize the effort required to isolate and identify the bioactive components of essential oils and to determine their cytotoxicity as their specificity. Thus, new approaches to specifically address bioactive components to selected targets could enhance the latter property in order to accommodate any cytotoxicity towards dysfunctioning loci. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.