scholarly journals Essential oils: a review on their salient biological activities and major delivery strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-71
Author(s):  
Sujata Paul ◽  
El Bethel Lalthavel Hmar ◽  
James H. Zothantluanga ◽  
Hemanta Kumar Sharma

Essential oils are volatile, complex products of plants as secondary metabolites and include terpenes and their oxygenated derivatives, such as alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols and oxides. In recent years, out of 3000 essential oils obtained from plant origin only 300 essential oils have gained extensive attention for applications in various fields. In this review, we discuss the major biological activities associated with EOs as antimicrobial, antispasmodic, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, insecticidal, antiparasitic, and cytotoxic agents. Different routes for delivery of essential oil along with the problems associated with essential oils like high volatility, low stability, permeability, bioavailability, poor water solubility, susceptibility to oxidation, decomposition, photosensitization and skin irritation are also highlighted. Furthermore, strategies to solve the mentioned problems are suggested by different nanoencapsulating systems. These include polymer-based nanocarriers, lipid-based nanocarriers and molecular complexes. It is believed that nanoencapsulation of essential oils will improve their therapeutic activity and delivery.

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuru Chang ◽  
Philip F. Harmon ◽  
Danielle D. Treadwell ◽  
Daniel Carrillo ◽  
Ali Sarkhosh ◽  
...  

In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to food safety and organic horticulture. Thus, people are looking for natural products to manage plant diseases, pests, and weeds. Essential oils (EOs) or EO-based products are potentially promising candidates for biocontrol agents due to their safe, bioactive, biodegradable, ecologically, and economically viable properties. Born of necessity or commercial interest to satisfy market demand for natural products, this emerging technology is highly anticipated, but its application has been limited without the benefit of a thorough analysis of the scientific evidence on efficacy, scope, and mechanism of action. This review covers the uses of EOs as broad-spectrum biocontrol agents in both preharvest and postharvest systems. The known functions of EOs in suppressing fungi, bacteria, viruses, pests, and weeds are briefly summarized. Related results and possible modes of action from recent research are listed. The weaknesses of applying EOs are also discussed, such as high volatility and low stability, low water solubility, strong influence on organoleptic properties, and phytotoxic effects. Therefore, EO formulations and methods of incorporation to enhance the strengths and compensate for the shortages are outlined. This review also concludes with research directions needed to better understand and fully evaluate EOs and provides an outlook on the prospects for future applications of EOs in organic horticulture production.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 13934-13951

Encapsulation of bioactive compounds s been considered a promising tool for preserving these compounds. Several studies on dietary sources and health benefits of flavonoids, their chemical and stability properties, and encapsulation methods used for delivery of flavonoids were reviewed. Flavonoids comprise the main group of polyphenols widely found in fruits and vegetables responsible for numerous biological activities. They have a flavan nucleus with 15 carbon atoms organized in three rings and are categorized into six subgroups. The main dietary sources of flavonoids are fruits, vegetables, cereals, tea, and some herbs such as Viola odorata Linn. These compounds can prevent diseases such as cardiovascular, cancers, neurodegenerative, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease. Despite these beneficial biological activities, flavonoids are not stable against environmental conditions, have low water solubility and low bioavailability after oral administration, which restricts their application. Accordingly, encapsulation has been utilized in order to improve the stability and solubility of flavonoids. Various approaches such as spray drying, molecular complexes, liposomes, nanoparticles, emulsification, and multilamellar vesicles have been applied in the entrapment of flavonoids. Encapsulation can improve the stability of flavonoids as well as solubility, controlled release, and bioavailability.


Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila P. de Matos ◽  
Helder F. Teixeira ◽  
Ádley A. N. de Lima ◽  
Valdir F. Veiga-Junior ◽  
Letícia S. Koester

Essential oils are natural products with a complex composition. Terpenes are the most common class of chemical compounds present in essential oils. Terpenes and the essential oils containing them are widely used and investigated by their pharmacological properties and permeation-enhancing ability. However, many terpenes and essential oils are sensitive to environmental conditions, undergoing volatilization and chemical degradation. In order to overcome the chemical instability of some isolated terpenes and essential oils, the encapsulation of these compounds in nanostructured systems (polymeric, lipidic, or molecular complexes) has been employed. In addition, nanoencapsulation can be of interest for pharmaceutical applications due to its capacity to improve the bioavailability and allow the controlled release of drugs. Topical drug administration is a convenient and non-invasive administration route for both local and systemic drug delivery. The present review focuses on describing the current status of research concerning nanostructured delivery systems containing isolated terpenes and/or essential oils designed for topical administration and on discussing the use of terpenes and essential oils either for their biological activities or as permeation enhancers in pharmaceutic formulations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rita Bilia ◽  
Clizia Guccione ◽  
Benedetta Isacchi ◽  
Chiara Righeschi ◽  
Fabio Firenzuoli ◽  
...  

Essential oils are complex blends of a variety of volatile molecules such as terpenoids, phenol-derived aromatic components, and aliphatic components having a strong interest in pharmaceutical, sanitary, cosmetic, agricultural, and food industries. Since the middle ages, essential oils have been widely used for bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, antiparasitical, insecticidal, and other medicinal properties such as analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, and locally anaesthetic remedies. In this review their nanoencapsulation in drug delivery systems has been proposed for their capability of decreasing volatility, improving the stability, water solubility, and efficacy of essential oil-based formulations, by maintenance of therapeutic efficacy. Two categories of nanocarriers can be proposed: polymeric nanoparticulate formulations, extensively studied with significant improvement of the essential oil antimicrobial activity, and lipid carriers, including liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid particles, and nano- and microemulsions. Furthermore, molecular complexes such as cyclodextrin inclusion complexes also represent a valid strategy to increase water solubility and stability and bioavailability and decrease volatility of essential oils.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Pavoni ◽  
Diego Romano Perinelli ◽  
Giulia Bonacucina ◽  
Marco Cespi ◽  
Giovanni Filippo Palmieri

The interest around essential oils is constantly increasing thanks to their biological properties exploitable in several fields, from pharmaceuticals to food and agriculture. However, their widespread use and marketing are still restricted due to their poor physico-chemical properties; i.e., high volatility, thermal decomposition, low water solubility, and stability issues. At the moment, the most suitable approach to overcome such limitations is based on the development of proper formulation strategies. One of the approaches suggested to achieve this goal is the so-called encapsulation process through the preparation of aqueous nano-dispersions. Among them, micro- and nanoemulsions are the most studied thanks to the ease of formulation, handling and to their manufacturing costs. In this direction, this review intends to offer an overview of the formulation, preparation and stability parameters of micro- and nanoemulsions. Specifically, recent literature has been examined in order to define the most common practices adopted (materials and fabrication methods), highlighting their suitability and effectiveness. Finally, relevant points related to formulations, such as optimization, characterization, stability and safety, not deeply studied or clarified yet, were discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 1836-1854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Ancheeva ◽  
Georgios Daletos ◽  
Peter Proksch

Background: Endophytes represent a complex community of microorganisms colonizing asymptomatically internal tissues of higher plants. Several reports have shown that endophytes enhance the fitness of their host plants by direct production of bioactive secondary metabolites, which are involved in protecting the host against herbivores and pathogenic microbes. In addition, it is increasingly apparent that endophytes are able to biosynthesize medicinally important “phytochemicals”, originally believed to be produced only by their host plants. Objective: The present review provides an overview of secondary metabolites from endophytic fungi with pronounced biological activities covering the literature between 2010 and 2017. Special focus is given on studies aiming at exploration of the mode of action of these metabolites towards the discovery of leads from endophytic fungi. Moreover, this review critically evaluates the potential of endophytic fungi as alternative sources of bioactive “plant metabolites”. Results: Over the past few years, several promising lead structures from endophytic fungi have been described in the literature. In this review, 65 metabolites are outlined with pronounced biological activities, primarily as antimicrobial and cytotoxic agents. Some of these metabolites have shown to be highly selective or to possess novel mechanisms of action, which hold great promises as potential drug candidates. Conclusion: Endophytes represent an inexhaustible reservoir of pharmacologically important compounds. Moreover, endophytic fungi could be exploited for the sustainable production of bioactive “plant metabolites” in the future. Towards this aim, further insights into the dynamic endophyte - host plant interactions and origin of endophytic fungal genes would be of utmost importance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 797-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula dos Passos Menezes ◽  
Francielly de Oliveira Araujo ◽  
Tatianny Araujo Andrade ◽  
Igor Araujo Santos Trindade ◽  
Heitor Gomes de Araujo-Filho ◽  
...  

Background: Some research studies have shown that Lippia pedunculosa essential oil (EOLP) has interesting biological activities. However, its low water solubility is the main challenge to achieve its therapeutic potential. In this context, Cyclodextrins (CDs) have been widely used in order to overcome this problem due to your capability to improve the physicochemical properties of drugs. Objective: In this perspective, the main goal of this study was to investigate how the improvement of the physicochemical properties of inclusion complexes (EOLP and β-CD) enhance the antinociceptive effect in mice. Methods: To achieve that, we prepared samples by Physical Mixture (PM), Paste Complexation (PC) and Slurry Complexation (SC) methods, followed by their physicochemical characterization. In addition, it was evaluated if the use of β-CD enhances the antinociceptive effect of EOLP in mice. Results: The analysis showed that rotundifolone (72.02%) was the major compound of EOLP and we found out based on DSC results that β-CD protected it from oxidation. In addition, TG techniques demonstrated that the best inclusion methods were PC and SC, due to their greater weight loss (10.8 and 11.6%, respectively) in the second stage (171-312°C), indicating that more complexed oil was released at the higher temperature than oil free. Other characteristics, such as changes in the typical crystalline form, and reduced particle size were observed by SEM and laser diffraction, respectively. The SC was the most effective complexation method, once the presence of rotundifolone was detected by FTIR. Based on that, SC method was used in all mice tests. In this regard, the number of paw licks was reduced for both compounds (all doses), but EOLP was more effective in reducing the nociceptive behavior. Conclusion: Therefore, CDs seem not to be a good tool to enhance the pharmacological properties of EOs rich in peroxide compounds such as rotundifolone.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1285-1292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuldip D. Upadhyay ◽  
Anamik K. Shah

Background: Quinoline analogues exhibited diversified biological activities depending on the structure type. A number of natural products with pyrano[3,2-c]quinolone structural motifs and patented chromenes were reported as promising cytotoxic agents. Objective: The present study is aimed to evaluate a new series of pyrano[3,2-c]quinoline scaffolds derived from the fusion of bioactive quinolone pharmacophore with structurally diverse aryl substituted chromene for its cytotoxicity. Methods: A library of pyrano[3,2-c]quinoline analogues was prepared from one-pot multi component synthesis using various aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile and 2,4-dihydroxy-1-methylquinoline. The new synthetics were primarily screened for its cytotoxicity (IC50) against different human cancer cell lines in vitro. The promising synthetics were further evaluated in vitro for their potency against different kinase activity. The promising compounds were finally tested for their in vivo efficacy in SCID type mice HCT-116 tumor model. Results: The screening results revealed that compounds 4c, 4f, 4i and 4j showed promising activity in in vitro study. However, compound 4c was found to be the most potent candidate with 23% tumor growth inhibition in HCT-116 tumor mice model. Conclusion: The structure activity relationship suggested that 3-substitution on the aryl ring at C4 position of the pyrano[3,2 c]quinolone moiety seems to have an important position for cytotoxicity activity. However, 3- chloro substitution at C4 aryl ring showed a significant alteration of the bioactive conformer of the parent scaffold and outcome with compound 4c as the most potent candidate of the series.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 750
Author(s):  
Zahira Tber ◽  
Mohammed Loubidi ◽  
Jabrane Jouha ◽  
Ismail Hdoufane ◽  
Mümin Alper Erdogan ◽  
...  

We report herein the evaluation of various pyrido[2′,1′:2,3]imidazo[4,5-c]isoquinolin-5-amines as potential cytotoxic agents. These molecules were obtained by developing the multicomponent Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction to yield various pyrido[2′,1′:2,3]imidazo[4,5-c]quinolines which are isosteres of ellipticine whose biological activities are well established. To evaluate the anticancer potential of these pyrido[2′,1′:2,3]imidazo[4,5-c]isoquinolin-5-amine derivatives in the human neuroblastoma cell line, the cytotoxicity was examined using the WST-1 assay after 72 h drug exposure. A clonogenic assay was used to assess the ability of treated cells to proliferate and form colonies. Protein expressions (Bax, bcl-2, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP-1) were analyzed using Western blotting. The colony number decrease in cells was 50.54%, 37.88% and 27.12% following exposure to compounds 2d, 2g and 4b respectively at 10 μM. We also show that treating the neuroblastoma cell line with these compounds resulted in a significant alteration in caspase-3 and PARP-1 cleavage.


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