Essential Oils of Lamiaceae Species as Promising Sources of Antimycobacterial Agents: Current Insights, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Tuberculosis remains a major global health threat, severely exacerbated by the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. The bioprospecting of natural matrices for novel, efficacious, and safe antimycobacterial agents represents an important strategy within the drug discovery pipeline. Essential oils (EOs) derived from the Lamiaceae family represent a rich reservoir of bioactive constituents, with well-documented antimicrobial properties and broad therapeutic potential. This review evaluates the current state of research regarding the antimycobacterial activity of Lamiaceae EOs, highlighting their efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant phenotypes, mechanism of action, structure-activity relationships, synergistic interactions with conventional antitubercular chemotherapies, and existing translational challenges. EOs from species belonging to genera such as Thymus, Mentha, Ocimum, Salvia, Satureja, Tetradenia, and Zataria showed significant antimycobacterial potency, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) below 100 μg/mL. The phenolic monoterpenoids thymol and carvacrol, alongside the abietane-type diterpene 6,7-dehydroroyleanone, exhibited notable antimycobacterial activity with MIC values of 0.78–12.5 μg/mL. Carvacrol and thymol disrupted the lipid-rich mycobacterial cell wall, increased bacterial membrane permeability, impaired energy metabolism, and induced oxidative stress. These compounds also exerted dual inhibitory effects on biofilm formation and development, interfered with Rv1258c and Rv0194 efflux pumps, and inhibited chorismate mutase activity. Similarly, 6,7-dehydroroyleanone compromised the integrity of the lipophilic mycobacterial cell envelope, suppressed cell wall biosynthesis, blocked ABC-family efflux transporters, and induced intracellular oxidative stress. Lamiaceae EOs exhibit multi-target antimycobacterial efficacy and hold considerable potential as adjuvants in combination antituberculosis regimens. To facilitate the translation of these natural matrices from bench to bedside, future research should focus on robust microbiological and chemical standardization, pharmacological and toxicological evaluation, and the development of advanced nanoformulations of EOs to optimize bioavailability and mitigate host cytotoxicity.