Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Essential Oils: A Short Review

Miguel, Maria Graça

From the seven Himalayan Lauraceae species, the essential oils of Dodecadenia grandiflora Nees, Lindera pulcherrima (Nees) Benth. ex Hook. f. and Persea gamblei (King ex Hook. f.) Kosterm were able to inhibit linoleic acid oxidation. Sesquiterpenoids dominated the oils. Furanodiene and germacrene D predominated in the oils of Dodecadenia grandiflora, whereas furanodienone and curzerenone constituted the major components of the Lindera pulcherrima oil [44] . The oils of Persea gamblei were constituted by β-caryophyllene, γ-gurjunene and β-cubenene. Such activities were independent on the presence of phenolic compounds in the essential oils. Mighri et al. (2010) [45] studied the antioxidant activity of the essential oils of Artemisia herbaalba Asso. cultivated in Southern Tunisia. Diverse methods were used, and one of them was the βbleaching test. They found four oil types: β-thujone, α-thujone, thujones (α + β), and 1,8cineole/camphor/thujones (α + β). All of these oils exhibited weak antioxidant abilities for preventing the linoleic acid oxidation. The β-thujone-rich oil showed the best inhibition percentage (12.5%), nevertheless much lower than BHA (89.2%). The attributed such results to the absence of nonphenolic compounds [45] .