Carvacrol: An Update of Biological Activities and Mechanism of Action

Bioactive substances from the plants are defined as secondary metabolites, which have the ability to cause pharmacological or toxicological effects in humans and/or animals, served as an important source of drugs, that can be offer therapeutic benefit in treating diseases. These natural products are the active components not only of most traditional medicines but also many modern medicines. The main chemical structure of bioactive compounds in plants are ranged in phenolic, terpenoids and alkaloids groups. Monoterpenoïds are one of the groups of bioactive compounds found in a several essential oils from aromatic plants and they are responsible for the many biological activities such as antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal, antitumor, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities. Among the active ingredients contained in essential oils, carvacrol. Carvacrol or cymophenol is a phenolic monoterpenoid present in many plant essential oils such as Satureja, Lippia, Oreganum and Thymus, widely used as a food additive. The therapeutic potential use of carvacrol to prevent and treat a wide range of diseases will be discussed and confirmed by several in vitro and in vivo scientific works, but all mechanisms of action are not elucidated. This paper present an update for scientific data and explains the possible mechanism of action of carvacrol for each biological activity verified experimentally.

Keywords: Medicinal plant, Essential oils, Monoterpenoïds, Carvacrol, Bioactivity.