Chapters authored
Essential Oils and Their Antioxidant Importance: The In Vitro and In Vivo Treatment and Management of Neurodegenerative Diseases with New Delivery Applications
Essential oils are organic volatile oils of plant sources consisting of various compounds with numerous medicinal and pharmacological actions of great importance in other fields. Neurodegenerative diseases are a constellation of conditions depicted by multifactorial processes, as evident in structural and functional neurodegeneration that affect diverse brain parts showing similar cellular and molecular etiologies. The antioxidant properties of essential oils are promising targets in drug discovery to find the solution to incurable neurodegenerative diseases in terms of prevention, treatment and management. The antioxidants in essential oils encounter barriers in their delivery to the central nervous system for effective targeted therapy. These barriers are characterized as limited permeability and solubility, and accumulation of drugs or molecules to the non-targeted site, among others, render neurodegenerative diseases incurable. However, nanotechnology and other approaches in drug delivery to the central nervous system provide promising results in different in vitro and in vivo studies that indicate controlled drug release, increased bioavailability and efficiency in treating and managing neurodegenerative disease.
Part of the book: Essential Oils