Essential oils as pharmaceutical substances - a historical overview
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Essential oils are odorous products, usually of complex composition, obtained from botanically defined herbal drugs by steam distillation, dry distillation, or a suitable mechanical process without heating. Herbal drugs containing essential oils has been used to produce medicinal products, cosmetics, food, and other preparations since ancient times. Early evidence of distillation was found in sources related to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The early modern and modern pharmaceutical standards and textbooks represent rich sources of data on pharmaceutical applications of essential oils, their quality assurance, ways of production, terminology, therapeutic use, etc. The aim of this work is to present information on the development of standardization, quality control methods, terminological changes of essential oils, as well as examples of medicinal products compounded by using these substances, based on selected Central European pharmacopeias valid during the 19th and 20th century. |
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