Clinical Potential of Essential Oils: Cytotoxicity, Selectivity Index and Antimicrobial Activity Against Gram-Negative ESKAPEE Pathogens
Belete BB., Ozkan J., Kalaiselvan P., Yasir M., Willcox M.
Narrative Review, published in Antibiotics (Basel) (2026) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Narrative Review
- Journal
- Antibiotics (Basel) (2026)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 41892437
- PMCID
- PMC13024362
- DOI
- 10.3390/antibiotics15030274
- Citations
- 4
Abstract (original English)
Background: Novel therapeutic compounds with strong efficacy and low resistance potential are urgently needed to combat life-threatening infections caused by antibiotic-resistant ESKAPEE pathogens. These pathogens contribute globally to a large share of bloodstream, respiratory, urinary, and wound infections, and often have levels of high antimicrobial resistance. This review examined the antimicrobial efficacy of different plant essential oils (EOs) against Gram-negative ESKAPEE pathogens and their cytotoxic effects and calculated selectivity indices in cancer and normal cell lines. Methods : This review was developed using studies retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, covering publications between 2013 and 2024 using the search terms: "essential oils", "plant extracts", "safety", "cytotoxicity", "cell lines", "human", "in-vitro", antimicrobial", "antibacterial" and "antibiotic" with Boolean operators ("AND", "OR", "NOT"). Only studies that reported both antimicrobial inhibitory concentrations and concentrations causing toxicity to mammalian cells were included in the final review. These data were then used to calculate the selectivity indices of the EOs (toxic concentration/antimicrobial inhibitory concentration) to give an initial assessment of safety. Results: Ocimum basilicum EOs had strong antibacterial effects against the Gram-negative ESKAPEE pathogens Esch
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is a narrative review: it collects no new patient data and does not systematically appraise evidence quality.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
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