Toxicity of essential oils: A brief overview of bioassays

Abstract

Since the ancient times, people have used essential oils as a cure because they have noticed their beneficial effects on the human mind and body. What they did not know was how these essential oils actually affected the human body, as well as exactly what component or more of them were responsible for the activity of a particular oil. Therefore, a lot of attention has recently been paid to the detailed identification of the constituents of essential oil and determination of the biological activity of the essential oil itself, as well as of those identified constituents. The aim of this paper is to systematize the most used, most accessible and easily feasible techniques for determining the biological activity of essential oils. For this purpose, the following tests are mentioned in this paper: fumigation, insecticidal, pediculi-cidal, nematicidal, larvicidal, ovicidal, cytotoxic and antinociception bioassay.