Global distribution of the chemical constituents and antibacterial activity of essential oils in Lauraceae family: A review

The Lauraceae family has a pantropical distribution, and plants in this family produce essential oils (EOs) of economic and medicinal interest. The chemical and antibacterial activities of the EOs of Lauraceae plants reported in the ten years are reviewed (2007-2017). A total of 191 studies were found, and the most cited genera being Cinnamomum, Ocotea, Laurus, Litsea and Persea. A more significant number of oxygenated compounds with higher hydrogen deficiency indices values (HDI) were found in species from the Asian continent, and hydrocarbons with lower HDI were more abundant in plants from the American continent. Notably, the differentiation of these two groups is consistent with the geographic isolation of America and Asia since the Gondwana and Laurasia supercontinents. Our survey of the available data showed that the major compounds were present at concentrations above 80%, and these compounds included benzyl benzoate (87.8%), methyl (E)-cinnamaldehyde (91.5%) and methyl (E)-cinnamate (95.2%). Of the 160 studies related to antibacterial activities, the most investigated microorganisms were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus and Salmonella enterica, and the MIC values ranged from 0.2 to 1000 µg/mL. This narrative review provides an overview of chemical and antibacterial studies on of the EOs of the Lauraceae plant family, highlighting the great biotechnological potential of this family and suggesting that the biogeographic separation of species on the American and Asian continents, which occurred thousands of years ago, could have affected oxygenation patterns and HDIs of the compounds in the EOs of the Lauraceae species.