Anticancer Activities of Essential Oils Constituents and Synergy with Conventional Therapies: A Review

Abstract

Many studies have shown that a large number of terpenoids and aromatic compounds contained in essential oils have significant anticancer activities, both on cell lines and on tumors in animals. The activity of these constituents is related to the activation of cell death (apoptosis) induced by the caspases proteins in cancer cells, with minor modifications of healthy cells. Many phenomena seem to occur, among which are as follows: overexpression and regulation of liver detoxification enzymes, changes in the membrane potential of cancer cells and mitochondria, production of free radicals in cancer cells, inhibition of angiogenesis, and modification of tumor-inducing genes. These active essential oil constituents appear to act synergistically with conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and some clinical studies in humans are beginning to be realized. In this review, we discuss about the antitumoral activity of 13 essential oil components selected among the most studied in the literature, with a focus on their possible mode of action. We also report current data on the anticancer properties of several total essential oils.

Actividad antiproliferativa de aceites esenciales de plantas cultivadas en Colombia

“…Resultados de estudios indican que los AEs y componentes aislados poseen actividad in vitro anticancerígena y en ratones de laboratorio pueden reducir el tamaño de tumores inducidos (Bhalla et al, 2013;Lesgards et al, 2014;Sobral et al, 2014;Manion y Widder, 2017). Existe suficiente evidencia para concluir que los AEs pueden servir como puntos de partida para desarrollo de medicamentos herbales y descubrimiento de nuevos fármacos.…”

Terpenes from Forests and Human Health

“…Thus, it is noteworthy that the use of terpene and its derivatives can be considered to potentiate the action of existing conventional therapies (81,82).…”

Directed evolution and expression tuning of geraniol synthase for efficient geraniol production in <i>Escherichia coli</i>

“…It is commercially important in the flavor and fragrance industries due to its pleasant rose-like odor (Chen and Viljoen, 2010;Rastogi et al, 2001). Geraniol also has value in anticancer drugs (Cho et al, 2016;Lesgards et al, 2014), pesticides, and anthelmintic or antimicrobial reagents (reviewed in Chen and Viljoen, 2010), and it is the precursor of a number of secondary plant metabolites, such as antimitotic alkaloids (Burlat et al, 2004; Geu-Flores et al, (Tsuruta et al, 2009).…”