School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University (IMU), Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia.
Centre of Inflammation, Centenary Institute and University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Science, School of Life Sciences, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
Molecules. 2022 May 9;27(9):3038. doi: 10.3390/molecules27093038.
The inflammatory response is a central aspect of the human immune system that acts as a defense mechanism to protect the body against infections and injuries. A dysregulated inflammatory response is a major health concern, as it can disrupt homeostasis and lead to a plethora of chronic inflammatory conditions. These chronic inflammatory diseases are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and the need for them to be managed in the long term has become a crucial task to alleviate symptoms and improve patients' overall quality of life. Although various synthetic anti-inflammatory agents have been developed to date, these medications are associated with several adverse effects that have led to poor therapeutic outcomes. The hunt for novel alternatives to modulate underlying chronic inflammatory processes has unveiled nature to be a plentiful source. One such example is agarwood, which is a valuable resinous wood from the trees of spp. Agarwood has been widely utilized for medicinal purposes since ancient times due to its ability to relieve pain, asthmatic symptoms, and arrest vomiting. In terms of inflammation, the major constituent of agarwood, agarwood oil, has been shown to possess multiple bioactive compounds that can regulate molecular mechanisms of chronic inflammation, thereby producing a multitude of pharmacological functions for treating various inflammatory disorders. As such, agarwood oil presents great potential to be developed as a novel anti-inflammatory therapeutic to overcome the drawbacks of existing therapies and improve treatment outcomes. In this review, we have summarized the current literature on agarwood and its bioactive components and have highlighted the potential roles of agarwood oil in treating various chronic inflammatory diseases.
炎症反应是人体免疫系统的一个核心方面，作为一种防御机制，保护身体免受感染和损伤。炎症反应失调是一个主要的健康问题，因为它会破坏体内平衡，导致多种慢性炎症性疾病。这些慢性炎症性疾病是全球发病率和死亡率的主要原因之一，因此需要长期管理，以减轻症状并提高患者的整体生活质量。尽管迄今为止已经开发出各种合成抗炎剂，但这些药物与许多不良反应相关，导致治疗效果不佳。为了寻找调节潜在慢性炎症过程的新替代物，人们发现大自然是一个丰富的来源。例如沉香，它是一种来自 spp. 树木的有价值的树脂木材。自古以来，沉香因其缓解疼痛、哮喘症状和止吐的能力而被广泛用于药用目的。在炎症方面，沉香的主要成分沉香精油已被证明含有多种具有生物活性的化合物，可调节慢性炎症的分子机制，从而产生多种治疗各种炎症性疾病的药理功能。因此，沉香精油具有很大的潜力被开发为一种新型的抗炎治疗药物，以克服现有治疗方法的缺点并改善治疗效果。在这篇综述中，我们总结了沉香及其生物活性成分的现有文献，并强调了沉香精油在治疗各种慢性炎症性疾病中的潜在作用。
