Thymol biological activities

In examining the two Hgures it will be noted that some of the essential oils are not common to both sets of experiments and that is because the negative data, for the most part, have not been presented. The biological activity of O. sanctum has already been mentioned in the section on medicinals, as has thymol. 

Thymus sp. (thyme) is a common spice that has been extensively studied [116-123]. Thyme is one of the earliest medicinal plants in western herbal medicine. The essential oil isolated from this spice is active in the inhibition of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as well as yeast and fdamentous fungi. A major constituent of thyme oil is thymol (91), which has been implicated as the molecule responsible for the activity of this essential oil. Other materials isolated from thyme oil that possess biological activity include carvacrol (92), bomeol (93), p-cymene (37), a-pinene (13) and camphene (94). Thymol (91) was shown to be the most active, followed by carvacrol (92), borneol (93), / -cymene (37), a-pinene (13), and camphene (94) [121]. 

Monoterpenes sesquiterpenes (-i-)-limonene p-caryophyllene a-humulene myrcene (—)-menthol nerolidol farnesol linalool bisabolol carvacrol thymol perillyl alcohol 1,8-cineol thujone camphor citral pulegone biological activity... 

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