Table Of ContentBioactive Essential Oils and Cancer
Damião Pergentino de Sousa
Editor
Bioactive Essential Oils
and Cancer
1 3
Editor
Damião Pergentino de Sousa
Federal University of Paraiba
João Pessoa, Paraíba
Brazil
ISBN 978-3-319-19143-0 ISBN 978-3-319-19144-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-19144-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015942822
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
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I dedicate this volume to my family, especially my little
daughter Julia, my son Pedro, and my wife Sheila for
her patience and encouragement.
v
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Springer for inviting me to edit this volume. I would like
to thank all contributors of the book for accepting the challenge of preparing the
contents of the chapters. Their effort made possible the publication of the volume.
vii
Preface
This volume, intended for professionals and researchers in the fields of life sci-
ences, biotechnology, and drug discovery, contains discussions of several aspects
of bioactive essential oils and their potential clinical use in treating or preventing
cancer. It is a valuable source of information and studies for all people who work
with natural products, especially with applications in cancer. We present chemical
structures designed to help the reader understand the key concepts of the chemical
and pharmacological properties of essential oils.
The content of the book is divided into 15 chapters. Chapter 1 provides an over-
view of cancer pathogenesis and therapies. Several genetic aspects are covered,
including critical genes and epigenetics in cancer, metastasis, epidemiology, and
environmental risk factors. This chapter also discusses the main therapeutic ap-
proaches in cancer, such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. In Chap. 2,
the reader is introduced to the chemistry of essential oils. Key concepts, classifi-
cation of the constituents of essential oils, and methods of analysis are some of
the topics discussed. In short, the authors describe the relevant chemical aspects
of aromatic plants and the chemical structures of the major compounds found in
their essential oils. Chapter 3 describes the features of botanical classification of
the main families containing plants that produce essential oils. Pharmacobotanical
aspects of selected species are described. Chapter 4 presents recent developments in
the synthesis of anticancer drugs from essential oil constituents, demonstrating the
potential of this class of natural products as starting materials for the development
of anticancer drugs. Chapter 5 introduces some successful examples of the use of
medicinal chemistry tools applied to essential oils constituents focusing on antitu-
mor activity. Chapter 6 reports some clinical studies with essential oil and chemical
constituents. Chapter 7 describes the selected studies on antitumor activities of es-
sential oils obtained from aromatic plants. A description of the general aspects of
these plants and chemical composition of their essential oils is also presented. The
antitumor monoterpenes found in essential oils and their possible mechanisms of
action are reported in Chap. 8. The antitumor sesquiterpenes found in essential oils
are described in Chap. 9; selected studies containing the mechanisms of action of
essential oils are presented in the chapter. Chapter 10 presents a literature review
on phenylpropanoids from essential oils which have antitumor activity. Chapter 11
ix
x Preface
presents a comprehensive description of synergy and interaction of essential oil
and the chemical constituents with drugs used in cancer therapy or other antitumor
constituents. The use of essential oil components as cancer preventive agents is
outlined in Chap. 12. Geraniol and farnesol are two selected constituents discussed
in this topic as dietary bioactive food components with promising applications in
cancer chemoprevention. Chapter 13 discusses the use of aromatherapy in promot-
ing well-being of patients with cancer. Depression and anxiety, commonly found in
people suffering from cancer, can affect the immune system and worsen the health
of the patient. The use of psychotherapeutic essential oils for inhalation can help
in the treatment of these patients by improving the quality of life. The perillyl al-
cohol is a monoterpene found in essential oils with significant antitumor activities.
The scientific reports are promising and contain several clinical studies. Chapter 14
describes the studies of a research group using perillyl alcohol monoterpene. The
experience of many years of research with perillyl alcohol is demonstrated in the
results of clinical analyses and magnetic resonance imaging of patients undergoing
treatment with perillyl alcohol, notably via inhalation. Chapter 15 comments on the
potential of essential oils for use in cancer therapy and future prospects.
I hope that this book will stimulate readers to appreciate the importance of natu-
ral products as health-promoting resources and generate a discussion and reflection
on new approaches in cancer therapy.
Damião Pergentino de Sousa
João Pessoa, Brazil
Contents
1 Principles of Cancer Pathogenesis and Therapies:
A Brief Overview ........................................................................................ 1
Rosane Borges Dias, Ludmila de Faro Valverde,
Clarissa Araújo Gurgel Rocha and Daniel Pereira Bezerra
2 Essential Oils Chemistry ........................................................................... 19
Mónica Zuzarte and Lígia Salgueiro
3 Pharmacobotanical Aspects of Aromatic Plants ..................................... 63
Basílio I.J.L.D., Nathalia Diniz Araujo and Rafael Costa Silva
4 Essential Oils as Raw Materials in the Synthesis
of Anticancer Drugs ................................................................................... 81
Timothy J. Brocksom, Kleber T. de Oliveira, Marco A. B. Ferreira
and Bruno M. Servilha
5 A ntitumor Essential Oils: Progress in Medicinal Chemistry ................. 111
Sócrates Cabral de Holanda Cavalcanti, Rafael dos Reis Barreto
de Oliveira and Damião Pergentino de Sousa
6 C linical Advances in Anticancer Essential Oils ....................................... 125
Ammad Ahmad Farooqi, Rubina Sohail, Sundas Fayyaz
and Iryna Shatynska-Mytsyk
7 A ntitumor Essential Oils ........................................................................... 135
Hemerson Iury Ferreira Magalhães and Élida Batista Vieira de Sousa
8 Antitumor Monoterpenes .......................................................................... 175
Janaina Fernandes
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xii Contents
9 Sesquiterpenes from Essential Oils with Promising
Antitumor Properties ................................................................................. 201
Fayaz Malik and Suresh Kumar
10 A ntitumor Phenylpropanoids .................................................................... 215
Miriam Teresa Paz Lopes, Dalton Dittz Júnior
and Fernanda de Oliveira Lemos
11 Antitumor Essential Oils: Synergy and Chemotherapeutic
Interactions ................................................................................................. 231
Rogerio Correa Peres, Carolina Foot Gomes de Moura,
Flavia Andressa Pidone Ribeiro and Daniel Araki Ribeiro
12 D ietary Essential Oils and Cancer Chemopreventive Potential ............ 237
Thomas Prates Ong
13 Cancer and Aromatherapy: A View of How the Use of
Essential Oils Applies to Palliative Care .................................................. 251
Rita de Cássia da Silveira e Sá
14 Perillyl Alcohol: A Pharmacotherapeutic Report ................................... 267
Clovis O Da Fonseca and Thereza Quirico-Santos
15 Conclusion and Future Perspectives ........................................................ 289
Damião Pergentino de Sousa
Index .................................................................................................................. 291
