Thyme Oil Calms Inflammatory Response

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an enzyme involved in prostaglandin biosynthesis, and plays a key role in the inflammatory response. In that essential oils, extracted from plants, have been long used for their aromatherapy, analgesic, and antibacterial properties, Hiroyasu Inoue, from Nara Women’s University (Japan), and colleagues screened a wide range of commercially available essential oils to assess their anti-inflammatory properties. They identified six essential oils – thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel, and bergamot that reduced the COX-2 expression in cells by at least 25 percent. Of these, thyme oil proved the most active, reducing COX-2 levels by almost 75 percent. Upon further study, the researchers found that carvacrol, a compound present in thyme oil, was the primary active anti-inflammatory agent; when they use pure carvacrol extracts in their tests, COX-2 levels decreased by over 80 percent.

Originally published In Press as doi:10.1194/jlr.M900255-JLR200 on July 3, 2009
Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 51, 132-139, January 2010
Copyright © 2010 by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology