title: Essential oils and their constituents as skin penetration enhancer for transdermal drug delivery: a review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, we focused on essential oils and their constituents as skin penetration enhancers for transdermal drug delivery, mechanism of their action as well as their possible toxicity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Essential oils and their volatile constituents can penetrate through the skin as well as enhance penetration of different drug from topical formulation into the lower skin layers using different mechanisms of action based on (1) disintegration of the highly ordered intercellular lipid structure between corneocytes in stratum corneum, (2) interaction with intercellular domain of protein, which induces their conformational modification, (3) increase the partitioning of a drug. After application to the skin, essential oils and their components are rapidly metabolized, not accumulated in the organism and fast excreted what strongly suggest that they can be successfully use as safe penetration enhancers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Essential oils and their constituents may be preferred over the traditionally used synthetics materials as safe and suitable permeation enhancers to promote the percutaneous absorption of hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs from topical formulation into the lower skin layers.
authors.affiliation: Academy of Cosmetics and Health Care, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.forename: Andrzej P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Herman
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000737:chemistry*; D010539:Permeability; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D012869:Skin Absorption
chemical_list: D009822:Oils, Volatile; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: permeability; permeation enhancers; toxicology; transdermal drug delivery