Chemical components, antidiabetic and anticancer effects of Origanum species

OpenAlex İngilizce

Cancer and diabetes are two of the most common chronic diseases in people worldwide. Developing countries in particular, still rely on herbs as supportive or complementary therapies in the treatment of these diseases. The aim of this study is to review the phytochemical content and studies on the antidiabetic and anticancer effects of Origanum genus, which is safely used as spice and tea and is one of the important genera for Türkiye, and to reveal the importance of this species in terms of health. For this purpose, important databases such as ScienceDirect, Springer, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, Taylor & Francis, Google Scholar were searched. As a result of these researches, it was seen that intensive researches were carried out especially on the essential oils of Origanum species and when the essential oil was evaluated phytochemically, it was seen that it contains especially carvacrol and thymol compounds as the main components. In addition, it was revealed that both the essential oil and extracts of this species have significant antidiabetic and anticancer effects when used both directly and in nanoparticles. Origanum species, which people are quite familiar with due to its safe use as a spice and tea by the public for many years, has shown that it can be promisingly effective on human health, including diabetes and cancer, with recent studies on it.