Essential Oil’s Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Properties

Abstract

Essential oil, sent by nature, is a complex mixture of volatile secondary metabolites. Its composition varies along with many parameters that can lead to misunderstanding of its wonderful pharmacological property. In fact, from postharvest treatment to the compound's identification through extraction approaches, the original chemotype of essential oils can be misdescribed. The pharmacological potentials of these oils are well known in the traditional system since time immemorial. Nowadays, some chemotypes of these oils had shown the effect against WHO's top 10 killer diseases. But the misuses of these essential oils are in part due to the lack of robust and easy analysis strategy that can allow the quality of the essential oils.

Encapsulation of Bioactive Phytochemicals in Plant-Based Matrices and Application as Additives in Meat and Meat Products

“…Both techniques are relatively simple, easily installed and do not require expensive material. However, there are some important drawbacks, such as the degradation or transformation of some compounds caused by overheating or photo-oxidation, the hydrolysis of esterified compounds sensitive to water [ 33 ], or low yields due to the boiling temperature of water being much lower than that of some essential oil constituents (150–300 °C). Additionally, it is important to highlight that steam distillation reduces the extraction time, artifacts, and losses of polar molecules in comparison with hydrodistillation [ 32 ].…”

“…CO 2 -SFAE is an efficient and convenient extraction technique to obtain lipophilic compounds from plant materials, such as essential oils, oleoresins, vitamins or carotenoids [ 10 , 26 , 40 ]. This is because the non-polar character of CO 2 makes it suitable for extracting these lipophilic compounds [ 10 , 32 , 33 ]. However, the low solubility of other important compounds (polar molecules) limits the use of pure CO 2 as a solvent in SFAE.…”

“…On the other hand, although both gas and liquid chromatography could be used for essential oil analysis, the gas chromatography technique is preferably due to the volatile nature of their constituents [ 33 ]. Gas chromatography (GC) using non-polar fused silica capillary columns are suitable for chromatographic separation and resolution of these materials.…”

“…Thus, gas chromatography coupled with mass a spectrometer (GC–MS) is the most common method currently used in the determination of essential oil composition. Several authors have used this powerful technique to determine the composition of complex mixtures of phenylpropanoid derivatives and terpenoids [ 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ], which are the main constituents of essential oils [ 31 , 33 ] and responsible for their characteristic odor [ 30 ]. Furthermore, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a solvent-free isolation technique that allows the extraction and concentration of volatile compounds from vial headspaces.…”

Essential and Fixed Oils: Evaluation of Chemical Structure-Activity Relationship

“…Uçucu yağlar ise bitkilerin yaprak, çiçek, meyve, tohum, kök, kabuk gibi farklı her bölgesinden elde edilebilen doğal kimyasallardır. Sabit yağlar trigliserid yapısındayken, uçucu yağlar terpenoid, fenolik ve fenolpropanoid, poliasetilen ve ftalat gibi molekül yapıdadırlar [2]. Uçucu yağların, esansiyel yağ, organik yağ ve aromatik ekstrakt gibi farklı isimlendirmeleri literatürde bulunmaktadır [3].…”