Essential Oils and their Products as Antimicrobial Agents: Progress and Prospects

Plants produce a great variety of secondary metabolites that are used for protection against predators and to attract the attention of pollinators. Among these secondary metabolites, essential oils constitute a signifi cant group; are defi ned as complex mixtures of terpenes, terpenoids, aromatic and aliphatic compounds biosynthesized by plants and all are characterized by possessing low molecular weight (Guenther 1950).