Background: Thymol is a natural phenolic monoterpenoid widely used in pharmaceutical and
food preservative applications. Thymol isomeric with carvacrol, extracted primarily from Thymus species
(Trachyspermum ammi) and other plants sources such as Baccharisgrise bachii and Centipeda minima,
has ethnopharmacological characteristics.
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Methods: This review was prepared by analyzing articles published on thymol moiety in last decade and
selected from Science Direct, Scopus, Pub Med, Web of Science and SciFinder. The selected articles are
classified and gives brief introduction about thymol and its isolation, illustrates its natural as well as
synthetic sources, and also therapeutic benefits of thymol worldwide
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Results: Thymol has been covering different endeavors such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiinflammatory,
antibacterial, antifungal, antidiarrhoeal, anthelmintic, analgesic, digestive, abortifacient,
antihypertensive, spermicidal, depigmenting, antileishmanial, anticholinesterase, insecticidal and many
others. This phenolic compound is among the essential scaffolds for medicinal chemists to synthesize
more bio-active molecules by further derivatization of the thymol moiety.
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Conclusion: Thymol is an interesting scaffold due to its different activities and derivatization of thymol
is proved to enhance its biological activities. However, more robust, randomised, controlled clinical
trials would be desirable with well-characterised thymol preparations to corroborate its beneficial effects
in diseased patients. Moreover, in view of the potential use of thymol and thymol-rich essential oils in
the treatment of human infections, comprehensive studies on chronic and acute toxicity and also teratogenicity
are to be recommended.