Plant essential oils and volatile organic compounds: roles and interests | Huiles essentielles et composés organiques volatils, rôles et intérêts
2016
Soualeh, N. | Soulimani, R.
The essential oils from aromatic plants are extracted from the plant world and used for thousands of years for their therapeutic properties, particularly anti infectious, often in the form of non-medicinal products. They play a significant role in plant defense and forest against natural aggression, including the fight against drought.Their compounds, due to their physico-chemical characteristics are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This term is sometimes also used to describe other compounds, volatile at room temperature and carbon-based, but due to human activity and considered as pollutants, such as petrochemical derivatives in particular.Terpenes, active substances found in essential oils and used for their therapeutic properties are issued at rates that can influence the chemical composition of the atmosphere. It is therefore necessary, as with any treatment, to take into account the tolerance of these natural substances, well studied in more than 1800 items. More than 2000 publications since 1995 have been devoted to pharmacology terpenes: it is mentioned in this study, these anti-inflammatory, decongestant, antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal, anti-parasitic, mucolytics, bile ducts, healing. Biological effects of essential oils are validated by many reliable and serious studies, as also are well documented data of toxicity and tolerance.Their use in confined spaces and domestic, particularly in low doses, would be of great interest especially for their antimicrobial effects, namely virucidal, bactericidal and fungicidal.In the current state of scientific knowledge, the benefit/risk ratio would be more in favor of their use with a good command of the recommendations of doses emitted into the environment.
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