Pharmacological evaluation of essential oils of Ocimum sanctum, Prunus persica and Zingiber officinale

Abstract

The present study comprises pharmacological trials with the essential oils of Ocimum sanctum, Prunus persica and Zingiber officinale, which have been found to exhibit a fungitoxic effect on plant pathogenic fungi. Analysis of the blood and serum of albino rats fed with an oil-supplemented diet for sixty days did not reveal significant variations in the levels of hemoglobin, total blood glucose, protein, cholesterol, urea, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase nor in differential leucocyte counts, in comparison to rats fed with a normal rat diet. These essential oils thus can be recommended as safe antifungal agents because the oils did not show any adverse alteration on different pharmacological parameters that have been observed in the present piece of work.