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REVIEW article
Front. Nat. Prod.
Sec. Isolation and Purification
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fntpr.2025.1490511
This article is part of the Research Topic Frontiers in Natural Products: Review Collection View all articles
Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Essential Oils: A Review of Composition and Influencing Factors
Provisionally accepted
Usama Ramadan Abdelmohsen 1*
Abeer H. Elmaidomy 2*- 1 Deraya University, New Minia, Egypt
- 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Beni Suef, Egypt
Essential oils (EOs) have a long-standing tradition and remain widely used in therapeutic applications. Their biological activities are primarily driven by complex interactions among their diverse components, which exhibit synergistic or antagonistic effects, resulting in a broad spectrum of pharmacological and biological properties. These components are characterized by distinct molecular formulas, specific molecular weights, and unique physicochemical properties. The composition, content, and bioactivity of EOs are influenced by a variety of internal and external factors. Internal factors include genetic aspects (species, ecotype, chemotype, cultivar, and variety), plant developmental stage, and the specific plant part used. External factors encompass environmental and cultivation conditions (climate, radiation, diurnal and annual rhythms, harvesting practices, latitude, planting dates, irrigation, fertilization, salinity, and growth retardants), postharvest techniques (drying methods and storage conditions), and extraction and distillation processes (methods, moisture, acidity, distillation time, and gas chromatography analysis conditions). Additionally, oil degradation during storage (due to light, temperature, oxygen, chemical composition, and metal contaminants) and factors affecting bioactivity (plant part treated, solvent/detergent used, composition-activity relationships, techniques, biological material, dose/concentration selection, reference compounds, and comparison with literature data) play critical roles in shaping EO properties. This review provides a comprehensive examination of these factors, highlighting their impact on the content, composition, and bioactivity of EOs. By addressing these parameters in detail, this work aims to enhance the understanding of EOs and their therapeutic potential.
Keywords: essential oils, environmental, cultivation, postharvest, Therapeutic potential
Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Abdelmohsen and Elmaidomy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Usama Ramadan Abdelmohsen, Deraya University, New Minia, Egypt
Abeer H. Elmaidomy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, 62 514, Beni Suef, Egypt
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.