The use of nanotechnology as an approach for essential oil-based formulations with antimicrobial activity

The resistance of the bacteria and fungi to the innumerous antimicrobial agents constitutes one of the great challenges in the treatment of infections, conditioning to the necessity of searching and finding new sources of substances with antimicrobial properties. Essential oils are aromatic oily liquids that can be obtained from several parts of the plants Known for their medicinal properties, mainly antimicrobial, these kind of compounds can easily undergo oxidation reactions resulting in allergenic products and/or products with less biological activity. The nanoencapsulation of these oils in drug delivery systems have been proposed due to their capability of improving the solubility, stability and efficacy of essential oil-based formulations, by maintenance of therapeutic drug blood levels. Among them, polymeric nanoparticulate formulations have been extensively studied with significant improve of the essential oil antimicrobial activity. Similar results also were obtained on studies focusing on lipid carriers, including liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, as well as nanoemulsions. Furthermore, other innovative carriers have been applied providing interesting results.