Biological activities of essential oils

© 2018 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.Essential oils are concentrated liquids of complex mixtures of volatile compounds produced during secondary metabolism of plants. Essential oils can be extracted from several plant organs by simple methods, the main is hydro-distillation. Essential oils are a good source of several bioactive compounds, which possess antioxidative and antimicrobial properties. In addition, some essential oils have been used as medicine, recent applications have been studied, for instance anticarcinogens, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidiabetic. Furthermore, the uses of essential oils have received increasing attention as the natural additives for the shelf-life extension of food products, due to the risk in using synthetic preservatives. Essential oils can be incorporated into packaging, in which they can provide active or smart packaging. Those essential oils can modify the matrix of packaging materials, thereby rendering the improved properties. Other applications of essential oils are in human health as antidiabetic and hypolipidemic. This job is a review on recent published works about the biological properties and possible applications of essential oils.

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