Cimino Cinzia, Maurel Oriana Maria, Musumeci Teresa, Bonaccorso Angela, Drago Filippo, Souto Eliana Maria Barbosa, Pignatello Rosario, Carbone Claudia
Laboratory of Drug Delivery Technology, Department of Drug and Health Sciences, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Pharmaceutics. 2021 Mar 3;13(3):327. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13030327.
Essential oils are being studied for more than 60 years, but a growing interest has emerged in the recent decades due to a desire for a rediscovery of natural remedies. Essential oils are known for millennia and, already in prehistoric times, they were used for medicinal and ritual purposes due to their therapeutic properties. Using a variety of methods refined over the centuries, essential oils are extracted from plant raw materials: the choice of the extraction method is decisive, since it determines the type, quantity, and stereochemical structure of the essential oil molecules. To these components belong all properties that make essential oils so interesting for pharmaceutical uses; the most investigated ones are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, wound-healing, and anxiolytic activities. However, the main limitations to their use are their hydrophobicity, instability, high volatility, and risk of toxicity. A successful strategy to overcome these limitations is the encapsulation within delivery systems, which enable the increase of essential oils bioavailability and improve their chemical stability, while reducing their volatility and toxicity. Among all the suitable platforms, our review focused on the lipid-based ones, in particular micro- and nanoemulsions, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanostructured lipid carriers.
精油已经被研究了60多年，但近几十年来，由于人们渴望重新发现天然药物，对其的兴趣日益浓厚。精油为人所知已有数千年历史，早在史前时代，因其治疗特性就被用于医疗和仪式目的。通过几个世纪以来不断完善的各种方法，从植物原料中提取精油：提取方法的选择至关重要，因为它决定了精油分子的类型、数量和立体化学结构。精油的所有特性都取决于这些成分，这些特性使得精油在药物应用方面极具吸引力；研究最多的是抗氧化、抗炎、抗菌、伤口愈合和抗焦虑活性。然而，其使用的主要限制在于它们的疏水性、不稳定性、高挥发性和毒性风险。克服这些限制的一个成功策略是将其封装在递送系统中，这能够提高精油的生物利用度，改善其化学稳定性，同时降低其挥发性和毒性。在所有合适的平台中，我们的综述聚焦于基于脂质的平台，特别是微乳和纳米乳、脂质体、固体脂质纳米粒和纳米结构脂质载体。
