Bay Leaf

Batool, Saima; Khera, Rasheed Ahmad; Hanif, Muhammad Asif; Ayub, Muhammad Adnan

Bay leaf (Laurus nobilis) is a perennial shrub belongs to the family laurel (Lauraceae). It has been cultivated throughout the European, tropical, subtropical, and Asian countries. It has been used for thousands of years for food flavoring, essential oil applications, and in traditional medicine. Mostly, it contains tannins, flavones, flavonoids, alkaloids, eugenol, linalool, methyl chavicol, and anthocyanins. The extent of each of these chemical constituents varies depending on the type of species or cultivars as well as cultivation conditions such as soil type, weather, irrigation, pruning, and other horticultural practices. Bay is an essential component of several industrial applications that range from food to cosmetics to pharmaceutical products. Bay leaf has many biologic activities such as wound healing activity, antioxidant activity, antibacterial activity, antiviral activity, immunostimulant activity, anticholinergic activity, antifungal activity, insect repellant activity, anticonvulsant activity, antimutagenic activity, and analgesic and antiinflammatory activity.