ROLE OF ESSENTIAL OILS IN THE PREPARATION OF TOPICAL ANTIMICROBIAL MICRO EMULSION: A REVIEW

Raghu Kumar H. M.* and Parthiban S.

ABSTRACT

Essential oils are considered as a ‘natural’ remedy for problems. As they are extremely complex mixtures, they show the effects either alone or in synergy. Microemulsions are optically isotropic and thermodynamically stable liquid solutions of oil, water, surfactant and cosurfactant. As some essential oils are showing very good antimicrobial property they are used as oil phase in the preparation of microemulsion. In this section we are going to review how the bioactive compounds present in natural oils are advantageous in natural oil loaded antimicrobial micro emulsion drug delivery system.

Keywords: essential oils, antimicrobial property, Microemulsion.