review · Antibiotics
Essential oils are widely utilised across the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries due to their therapeutic and biological properties. However, their active constituents and related derivatives remain incompletely characterised. This review examines the antibacterial performance of specific monoterpenes, namely carvacrol, menthol, and thymol, alongside phenylpropanoids including cinnamaldehyde and eugenol. It also highlights progress in modifying these essential oil components into chemical derivatives. These newly developed derivatives demonstrate enhanced antibacterial efficacy while lowering toxicity. Synthesising recent findings, the work presents these natural molecules and their modified variants as viable options for therapeutic development, food preservation, and synthetic antibiotic substitutes to counter bacterial resistance.
Bacterial resistance poses a serious challenge to public health, driving the search for alternative antimicrobial agents. Natural plant compounds and their tailored derivatives offer biological activity with reduced toxicity. Understanding how these molecules perform helps researchers develop safer, naturally derived treatments and preservatives that can effectively counter harmful bacteria in medical and food contexts.
The findings are relevant to product developers in the pharmaceutical and food preservation industries seeking alternatives to synthetic antibiotics and conventional preservatives. Because the abstract outlines a review of recent research on molecules and chemical derivatives rather than testing a specific commercial product, the work represents early-stage research requiring further development and regulatory validation before direct market application.
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Essential oils (EOs) are gaining ground and have been intensively studied due to their widespread use in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. The essential components of EOs have been recognized for diverse therapeutic activities and have gained significant attention for their potential antibacterial activities. Despite the popularity of EOs and potent biological properties, their bioactive components and their derivatives are still not comprehensively characterized. This review explores the antibacterial efficacy of selected EO components and their derivatives, focusing on monoterpenes chosen (i.e., carvacrol, menthol, and thymol) and phenylpropanoids (i.e., cinnamaldehyde and eugenol). Furthermore, this review highlights recent advancements in developing derivatives of these EO components, which have shown improved antibacterial activity with reduced toxicity. By summarizing recent studies, this review reveals the potential of these natural compounds and their derivatives as promising candidates for pharmaceuticals, food preservation, and as alternatives to synthetic antibiotics in combating bacterial resistance.
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DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics14010068
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