Essential oils and their constituents as skin penetration enhancer for transdermal drug delivery: a review

Abstract

Objectives: In this paper, we focused on essential oils and their constituents as skin penetration enhancers for transdermal drug delivery, mechanism of their action as well as their possible toxicity. Key findings: Essential oils and their volatile constituents can penetrate through the skin as well as enhance penetration of different drug from topical formulation into the lower skin layers using different mechanisms of action based on (1) disintegration of the highly ordered intercellular lipid structure between corneocytes in stratum corneum, (2) interaction with intercellular domain of protein, which induces their conformational modification, (3) increase the partitioning of a drug. After application to the skin, essential oils and their components are rapidly metabolized, not accumulated in the organism and fast excreted what strongly suggest that they can be successfully use as safe penetration enhancers. Summary: Essential oils and their constituents may be preferred over the traditionally used synthetics materials as safe and suitable permeation enhancers to promote the percutaneous absorption of hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs from topical formulation into the lower skin layers.

Chemical composition of the essential oils and extracts of Achillea species and their biological activities: A review

“…The compositions of the EOs are greatly influenced by diverse parameters involving time and season of harvesting of the plants, type of the plant organs and the corresponding family, geographical and climatic conditions, physiological age, developmental stage, nutritional status of the plants, post-harvest drying, plant storages, genetic diversity, extraction methods, elemental structure of the sampling area, physicochemical variables related to the respective soils and also stress during the growth or maturity (Tabanca et al, 2011;Raut and Karuppayil, 2014;Mohammadhosseini, 2015b, a;Nekoei and Mohammadhosseini, 2016). Some comprehensive reviews covering some important aspects, e.g., the status, preparation methods, biological activities, potential use and processing of the EOs (Radulovic et al, 2007;Bakkali et al, 2008;Nemeth and Bernath, 2008;Adorjan and Buchbauer, 2010;Rubiolo et al, 2010;Lang and Buchbauer, 2012;Shaaban et al, 2012;Tranchida et al, 2012;Oliveira et al, 2014;Raut and Karuppayil, 2014;Sivakumar and Bautista-Banos, 2014;Tongnuanchan and Benjakul, 2014;Xiao et al, 2014;Calo et al, 2015;Herman and Herman, 2015;Zeng et al, 2015;Sarmento-Neto et al, 2016) are available to date.…”

New strategies for local treatment of vaginal infections

“…[203] and to the own effect of nano-sized droplets of the emulsion that may improve permeation [99]. Also, it should be noted that essential oils (EO) or their components have been studied as permeation enhancers due to their ability of either promoting changes in the epithelium structures or modifying the partitioning of a drug [204]. [205,206].…”

Natural Permeation Enhancer for Transdermal Drug Delivery System and Permeation Evaluation: A Review

“…As they are penetrated easily by the skin, they are easily excreted also by the body with urine and feces. Hence, due to their better safety profile in comparison with other penetration enhancers, their use is increasing [23].…”