Menicucci Felicia, Palagano Eleonora, Raio Aida, Cencetti Gabriele, Luchi Nicola, Ienco Andrea, Michelozzi Marco
National Research Council, Institute of Chemistry of OrganoMetallic Compounds, (CNR-ICCOM), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
National Research Council, Institute of Bioscience and Bioresources, (CNR-IBBR), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2536:475-493. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2517-0_28.
Essential oils (EOs) and oleoresins are complex mixtures mainly made up of terpenes, synthesized by a wide variety of plants. Individual terpenes may show broad-spectrum activity against different plant pathogens, and their combination into EO and oleoresin mixtures enhances plant chemical defense. The interest in EOs has significantly increased due to the trend of using natural products as herbicides, insecticidal and antimicrobial agents. In addition, the use of plant mixtures is an emerging approach to face the problem of antimicrobial resistance in agriculture. This chapter reports guidelines about plant sample collection for the production of EOs and provides protocols to test their activity as antimicrobial agents against bacteria and fungi. It also describes a solvent-free method for the inclusion of EOs into β-cyclodextrins. This type of formulate is prepared to turn liquid EOs into easily manageable water-soluble powders, and to control the release of volatile compounds, aiming to increase EOs' applications in agriculture.
精油（EOs）和油树脂是主要由萜类化合物组成的复杂混合物，由多种植物合成。单个萜类化合物可能对不同的植物病原体表现出广谱活性，它们组合成精油和油树脂混合物可增强植物的化学防御能力。由于使用天然产物作为除草剂、杀虫剂和抗菌剂的趋势，对精油的兴趣显著增加。此外，使用植物混合物是应对农业中抗菌耐药性问题的一种新兴方法。本章报告了关于用于生产精油的植物样品采集的指南，并提供了测试其作为抗菌剂对细菌和真菌活性的方案。它还描述了一种将精油包合到β-环糊精中的无溶剂方法。制备这种类型的制剂是为了将液体精油转化为易于管理的水溶性粉末，并控制挥发性化合物的释放，旨在增加精油在农业中的应用。
