Superimposed effect of plant essential oil constituents and their biomedical application

The compound of essential oils (CEOs) has been becoming critical biological agents for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. CEOs' overall efficacy and side effects are significantly impacted by the synergistic or antagonistic effects between their constituents. This review elaborates on the complexity of plant essential oils (PEOs) constituents' superposition and proposes the theory of CEOs constituents superposed effect, explains the pharmacological activities and synergistic effect of constituents' superposition and elucidation the mechanism of inhibitory antagonistic effect. This article summarizes the research methods of constituents' efficacy contribution degree of superimposed effect and explores the advantageous constituents with potential therapeutic effect. Finally, we pointed out the principal constituents and mechanism of the superposed effect of PEOs in biomedical and explored their target points to improve the screening efficiency and accuracy of principal constituents. Additionally, this paper explored the potential application and mechanism of the synergistic effect of CEOs in the prevention and control of coronavirus, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is the cause of an infection known as coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19). It provides new insights for enhancing the synergistic effect and reducing the antagonistic effect of CEOs, providing the theoretical basis for further exploring the diverse applications of CEOs in biomedicine and also proposing new strategies for the prevention and control of coronaviruses (exceptionally Long-COVID) in the post-pandemic period. • Plant essential oils have potentials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications by component superposition effect. • Plant essential oils has potentials to treat coronavirus, including SARS-CoV-2. • The synergistic effect and reducing the antagonistic effect of compound of essential oils.