Biological properties, chemical profiles and safety of essential oils from South African aromatic plants: a literature review

Essential oils consist of mixtures of chemically and functionally diverse aromatic phyto-compounds. Due to their extensive chemo-diversity, these oils are used extensively in agriculture, aromatherapy, cosmetics, food, perfumery, and pharmacological industries. Although reasonable progress has been made in validating and documenting the use of medicinal plants in South Africa, little is currently known about the biological properties, chemical profiles, and safety of essential oils from aromatic medicinal plants in this country. The current review includes accounts of South African essential oils reported to have noteworthy anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-plasmodium, spasmolytic, and toxicological properties. The biological activities of some of the dominant and most common compounds found in the oils were also discussed. Traditional methods used to extract the oils, variations in the oils' chemical compositions, factors affecting their chemistry, and various analytic tools used to assess their chemical profiles are also reported in this review.