Can Essential Oils be a Potent Alternative of Synthetic Antioxidants?

Aromatic plants and spice are well known for their beneficial properties on human health. A considerable amount of literature is present where the studies are mainly focused on the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the plant extracts. Essential oils are one of the plant extracts mainly consists of volatile and non-volatile parts having numerous applications in multiple industries. They are widely used in perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. Now days, they have a very high commercial value due to its therapeutic properties. The therapeutic properties are related to bioactive compounds present in these essential oils. Numbers of review articles have reported about their strong radical scavenging capacity and ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation, especially in food and cosmetic products. They are complex mixtures of volatile compounds such as terpenes (mostly monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes), phenolics and alcohols. However, the essential oils are highly complex and may include oxygenated compounds. The variability among their chemical composition reported in various studies made their comparison very difficult. The other main concern in interpretation of the published results is the variation found among the analytical methods used for the determination of antioxidant capacity of these Essential oils. These antioxidant assays differ from each other in terms of reaction mechanisms, oxidant and target species, reaction conditions. Therefore, a multipletest and a simultaneous chemical characterization must be taken into account whenever assays of these essential oils are performed. Furthermore, prooxidant property of essential oils is also reported which is related to proteins and DNA damage at cellular level. All these factors must be taken into account when the antioxidant properties of essential oils are considered. However, seeing the current trends towards green consumerism and results published in support of the antioxidant properties of these essential oils, it will be a potent alternative of synthetic antioxidants.