No abstract

Plants produce a large number of molecules with potential biological activity, such as alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolic compounds, among others. Essential oils are a complex mixture of low molecular weight metabolites, isolated from vegetal material by hydrodistillation and with application in folk medicine and fragrance industries (Turek & Stintzing, 2013).The main constituents of plant's essential oils are terpenes, particularly monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, and also phenolic compounds, among other volatile chemical groups. Monoterpenes (C10) are hydrocarbons formed by two isoprene units and can be aliphatic or cyclic. Moreover, monoterpene derivatives or monoterpenoids can contain several functional groups, being classified as alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, or esters (Bakkali et al., 2008).The biological proprieties of several essential oils and their chemical constituents have been reviewed by several authors, and include cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antitumor, pro-and antioxidant, stimulant, and allelopathic activities, among others (Andrade