K. HĂźsnĂź Can BaĹer and Gerhard Buchbauer
The overwhelming success of the first edition of the Handbook of Essential Oils: Science, Technology, and Applications had urged the publication of the second edition which was bestowed, in 2016, the ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award for the excellent contribution to the vast field of essential oils. This prestigious award by the American Botanical Council for the best book in botanical literature has prompted us to prepare a third edition of this Handbook.
As in the previous edition, updated chapters as well as completely new chapters have been included in the third edition. Some important chapters remained as such. Thus, we kept the contributions of the current Chapters 2, 5, 6, 9, 22, 23, 25, 32, and 33 as in the second edition. We skipped Chapters 15, 16, and 26 in the second edition of the Handbook, whereby the former Part Chapter 16, âAromatherapy with Essential Oilsâ, has been substituted by Rhiannon Lewis (Chapter 13). In this edition, Chapters 4, 7, 10, 26, 30, and 31 have been updated, and many new contributions have been added, covering the commonly entitled âBiological activities ofâŚâ chapters in the form of six chapters. These are âEssential Oils in Cancer Therapyâ (Chapter 14), then âAntimicrobial Activity of Selected Essential Oils and Aromasâ (Chapter 15), followed by âQuorum Sensing and Essential Oilsâ (Chapter 16), then âEssential Oils as Carrier Oilsâ (Chapter 27), and then two new (more chemically written) overviews, namely âInfluence of Light on Essential Oil Constituentsâ and âInfluence of Air on Essential Oil Constituentsâ (now Chapters 28 and 29). The new Chapter 19, entitled âAdverse Effects and Intoxication with Essential Oilsâ is an overview written by a pharmacologist of the University of Vienna. The former Chapter 12 now has been substituted by the updated chapter âCentral Nervous System Effects of Essential Oil Compoundsâ (now Chapter 11) and another, newly entitled, treatise, namely âEffects of Essential Oils on Human Cognitionâ (now Chapter 12). âEssential Oils and Volatiles in Bryophytesâ is a new chapter (Chapter 21) by Agnieszka Ludwiczuk and Yoshinori Asakawa. âFunctions of Essential Oils and Natural Volatiles in PlantâInsect Interactionsâ (Chapter 17) was contributed by R. Raguso. âEssential Oils as Lures for Invasive Ambrosia Beetlesâ (Chapter 18) is yet another new contribution. A useful new chapter for GC/MS analysts is entitled âUse of Linear Retention Indices in GC/MS Libraries for Essential Oil Analysisâ (Chapter 8).
Also with this third edition, we hope that many scientists, especially in the fields of essential oils in botany, chemistry, pharmacognosy, medicine, clinical aromatherapy, and other relevant aspects of these natural products, will find these contributions not only alluring for their own research but also interesting to read and to find out what manifold properties essential oils have. Especially, also in this third edition, we want to provide a strong scientific basis for essential oils and to prevent any trace of esoteric ignorance.
2
History and Sources of Essential Oil Research
Karl-Heinz Kubeczka
Contents
2.1 Ancient Historical Background
2.2 First Systematic Investigations
2.3 Research during the Last Half Century
2.3.1 Essential Oil Preparation Techniques
2.3.1.1 Industrial Processes
2.3.1.2 Laboratory-Scale Techniques
2.3.1.3 Microsampling Techniques
2.3.2 Chromatographic Separation Techniques
2.3.2.1 Thin-Layer Chromatography
2.3.2.2 GC
2.3.2.3 Liquid Column Chromatography
2.3.2.4 Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
2.3.2.5 Countercurrent Chromatography
2.3.3 Hyphenated Techniques
2.3.3.1 Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
2.3.3.2 High-Resolution GC-FTIR Spectroscopy
2.3.3.3 GC-UV Spectroscopy
2.3.3.4 Gas Chromatography-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
2.3.3.5 Gas Chromatography-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry
2.3.3.6 High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Gas Chromatography
2.3.3.7 HPLC-MS, HPLC-NMR Spectroscopy
2.3.3.8 Supercritical Fluid ExtractionâGas Chromatography
2.3.3.9 Supercritical Fluid Chromatography-Gas Chromatography
2.3.3.10 Couplings of SFC-MS and SFC-FTIR Spectroscopy
2.3.4 Identification of Multicomponent Samples without Previous Separation
2.3.4.1 UV Spectroscopy
2.3.4.2 IR Spectroscopy
2.3.4.3 Mass Spectrometry
2.3.4.4 13C-NMR Spectroscopy
References
2.1 Ancient Historical Background
Plants containing essential oils have been used since furthest antiquities as spices and remedies for the treatment of diseases and in religious ceremonies because of their healing properties and their pleasant odors. In spite of the obscured beginning of the use of aromatic plants in prehistoric times to prevent, palliate, or heal sicknesses, pollen analyses of Stone Age settlements indicate the use of aromatic plants that may be dated to 10,000 bc.
One of the most important medical documents of ancient Egypt is the so-called Papyrus Ebers of about 1550 bc, a 20 m long papyrus, which was purchased in 1872 by the German Egyptologist G. Ebers, for whom it is named, containing some 700 formulas and remedies, including aromatic plants and plant products like anise, fennel, coriander, thyme, frankincense, and myrrh. Much later, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (460â377 bc), who is referred to as the father of medicine, mentioned in his treatise Corpus Hippocratium approximately 200 medicinal plants inclusive of aromatic plants and described their efficacies.
One of the most important herbal books in history is the five-volume book De Materia Medica, written by the Greek physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40â90), who practiced in ancient Rome. In the course of his numerous travels all over the Roman and Greek world seeking for medicinal plants, he described more than 500 medicinal plants and respective remedies. His treatise, which may be considered a precursor of modern pharmacopoeias, was later translated into a variety of languages. Dioscorides, as well as his contemporary Pliny the Elder (23â79), a Roman natural historian, mention besides other facts turpentine oil and give some limited information on the methods in its preparation.
Many new medicines and ointments were brought from the east during the Crusades from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, and many herbals, whose contents included recipes for the use and manufacture of essential oil, were written during the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Theophrastus von Hohenheim, known under the name Paracelsus (1493â1541), a physician and alchemist of the fifteenth century, defined the role of alchemy by developing medicines and extracts from healing plants. He believed distillation released the most desirable part of the plant, the Quinta essentia or quintessence by a means of separating the âessentialâ part from the ânonessentialâ containing its subtle and essential constituents. The currently used term âessential oilâ still refers to the theory of Quinta essentia of Paracelsus.
The roots of distillation methods are attributed to Arabian Alchemists centuries with Avicenn...
