The Medical Benefits of Vetiver Essential Oil

Handi Suyono

and Deby Susanti

Faculty of Medicine, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University, Pakuwon City Campus, Jalan Kalisari Selatan no.1

Pakuwon City, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

Private Medical Practice, Aesthetic Medicine, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia

Keywords: Vetiver Essential Oil. essential oil, toxicity, carcinogenic, treatment

Abstract: Vetiver essential oil (VEO) has been used century ago for religious and medical purposes. Vetiver plants are

cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries. VEO contains sesquiterpenes compounds. VEO can be

applied to treat neurological, psychiatric, dermatological, and musculoskeletal disorders. VEO has low

toxicity and no carcinogenic effect. VEO has some pharmacological mechanism in medical treatments. The

possible mechanisms are gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) potentiation, antioxidant, antiinflammation,

anti-stress, tissues regeneration, anti-microbe, and cytotoxic against cancer. VEO can be applied as topical

and oral treatment.

1 INTRODUCTION

Vetiver essential oil (VEO) has been used century

ago in north India then spreading to Southeast Asia,

China, Middle East, West Africa, and Europe. VEO

is used for religious and medical purposes (Maffei,

2002). VEO is made from distillation process of

Vetiver plant (Vetiveria zizanioides). Vetiver plant

in Indonesia is known as akar wangi or narwastu.

Vetiver plants have been cultivated in Java island,

especially West Java region. Indonesia is the top

rank 3 producer in the world, after India and Haiti.

VEO has fragrant odour and pharmacological

effects. Several studies report the effect of VEO as

antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbe, and

neuroendocrine modulator. VEO has high economic

value, because its property is not only for fragrance

but for medicine. This paper will discuss the benefits

of VEO for human health and the pharmacological

mechanisms.

2.1 The History of Vetiver Plant and

Essential Oil

The origin of Vetiver plant is north India. It is called

Khas Khas. There are several names in Sanskrit,

namely Virana, Lamajjaka, Lamaja, Bala, or

Turushka-danda (turushka = fragrant compound,

danda = stem). Vetiver plant is known as

Saewaendara or Vettyveer in Sri Lanka. Vetiver

plants were spread from Sri Lanka to Europe then

called Vetiver until now. Vetiver plants are

cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries, e.g.

Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma,

Thailand, Laos, Philippines), China (south region),

Middle East (Iran), Africa (Nigeria, Ethiopia,

Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Reunion, South

Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe), South America (Puerto

Rico, Haiti, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala,

Mexico) (Maffei, 2002). Vetiver is called as akar

wangi, laraseta, or usar in Indonesia. Botanical name

of Vetiver is Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash,

Andropogon muricatus (Retz), Andropogon

zizanioides (L.) Urban, Chrysopogon zizanioides

(L.) Roberty, or Phalaris zizanioides L. (Tisserand

and Young, 2014).

The root and leaf (stem) of Vetiver plant have

some benefits. The root is proceeding to produce

essential oil. The raw root has benefits as room or

container fragrance and bio pesticide. The leaf

(stem) can be used for animal food and handicraft.

The Vetiver plants are useful in soil erosion

prevention, soil conservation and restoration. The

root of Vetiver reach until 2 m in depth. The main

producers in the world are India, Haiti, and

Indonesia, however the best quality are from

Reunion and Haiti (Maffei, 2002).

VEO has been used on Ayurveda medicine in

South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal). VEO

used into religious purposes because it was belief to

Suyono, H. and Susanti, D.

The Medical Beneﬁts of Vetiver Essential Oil.

DOI: 10.5220/0009954400090012

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Essential Oils (ICEO 2019), pages 9-12

ISBN: 978-989-758-456-5

avoid evil and its fragrance has relaxing effect in

praying. Traditional medicine used VEO to draw out

evil from sick person. The root of Vetiver was

stirred and drunk as treatment for fever, digestive

illness, and diarrhoea. VEO was rubbed onto skin to

treat burn wound (Maffei, 2002).

2.2 Vetiver Essential Oil

Characteristics

VEO contains sesquiterpenes and hydrocarbon

compounds. Sesquiterpenes precursor is farnesyl

diphosphate. Basic structure sesquiterpene consist of

15 atoms carbon. Sesquiterpenes have large

molecules and less volatile. Hydrocarbons are

hydrophobic (Tisserand and Young, 2014). VEO

contains more than 75 sesquiterpenes, namely

monocyclic sesquiterpenes, bicyclic sesquiterpenes,

tricyclic sesquiterpenes, and tetracyclic

sesquiterpenes (Maffei, 2002).

The compounds of VEO list are available in

Table 1. The maximum topical (dermal) application

is 15% (from Java-Indonesia, China, Brazil, Mexico)

because they contain isoeugenol. VEO from Haiti,

India, Reunion, and El Salvador does not contain

isoeugenol. Isoeugenol is weak acid which is

corrosive for cells and tissues (Tisserand and Young,

2014). However, study by Champagnat et al. (2005),

reported that VEO compositions from 9 countries,

namely Brazil, China, Haiti, India, Indonesia,

Madagascar, Mexico, Reunion, El Salvador) were

not significantly different. VEO compositions were

relatively homogeneous with the main compositions

were khusimol, β-vetivenene and β-vetispirene. The

main compound was sesquiterpene (Champagnat et

al., 2006).

Study by Kadarohman et al. (2013), reported

VEO quality from organic and non-organic Vetiver

plants. The quality of organic was better than non-

organic. Physically, organic VEO was more

concentrate and no black spot. Chemically, VEO

organic contains less pesticide residue and higher

level of vetiverol (Kadarohman et al., 2013). The

different cultivations show no significant difference

in VEO composition. Study by Pripdeevech et al.

(2006), reported that cultivation in normal soil,

normal soil plus microbes, and semi hydroponic,

then extracted by steam distillation and solvent

extraction apparatus, showed no significant

difference in VEO composition (Pripdeevech et al.,

2006).

There are not any dangerous effects that caused

by VEO. Acute (few hours until days) and subacute

(45-90 days) exposures do not show significant

toxicity. Skin hypersensitivity can occur but it is

very rare and the incidence is 0.5%. The acute oral

toxicity (LD

) is > 5g/kg and dermal toxicity is >

5g/kg. VEO does not show carcinogenic effect

(Tisserand and Young, 2014).

Table 1: The composition of vetiver essential oil.

Khusimol (zizanol)

3,4 – 13,7%

Vetiselinenol

(isonootkatol)

1,3 – 7,8%

Cyclocopacamphan-12-ol

(epimer A)

1,0 – 6,7%

α-Cadinol

0 – 6,5%

α-Vetivone

(isonootkatone)

2,5 – 6,4%

β-Vetivenene

0,2 – 5,7%

β-Eudesmol

0 – 5,2%

β-Vetivone

2,0 – 4,9%

Khusenic acid

0 – 4,8%

β-Vetispirene

1,5 – 4,5%

γ-Vetivenene

0,2 – 4,3%

α-Amorphene

1,5 – 4,1%

(E)-Eudesm-4(15),7-

dien-12-ol

1.7–3.7%

b-Calacorene

0–3.5%

g-Cadinene

0–3.4%

(Z)-Eudesm-6-en-11-ol

1.1–3.3%

g-Amorphene

0–3.3%

Ziza-5-en-12-ol

0–3.3%

b-Selinene

0–3.1%

(Z)-Eudesma-6,11-diene

0–2.9%

Salvial-4(14)-en-1-one

0–2.9%

Khusinol

0–2.8%

Cyclocopacamphan-12-ol

(epimer B)

1.1–2.7%

Selina-6-en-4-ol

0–2.7%

Khusian-ol

1.5–2.6%

d-Amorphene

0–2.5%

1-epi-Cubenol

0–2.4%

Khusimene (ziza-6(13)-

ene)

1.1–2.3%

Ziza-6(13)-en-3b-ol

0–2.3%

Ziza-6(13)-en-3-one

0–2.3%

2-epi-Ziza-6(13)-en-3a-ol

1.0–2.2%

12-Nor-ziza-6(13)-en-2b-

0–2.2%

a-Vetispirene

0–2.2%

Eremophila-1(10),7(11)-

diene

0.9–2.1%

Dimethyl-6,7-bicyclo-

[4.4.0]-deca-10-en-one

0–2.0%

10-epi-g-Eudesmol

0–1.8%

a-Calacorene

0.4–1.7%

(E)-Opposita-

4(15),7(11)-dien12-ol

0–1.7%

Prekhusenic acid

0–1.6%

13-Nor-eudesma-4,6-

0.6–1.5%

ICEO 2019 - 2nd International Conference of Essential Oil Indonesia

dien-11-one

Isovalencenol

0–1.5%

Spirovetiva-1(10),7(11)-

diene

0–1.5%

2-epi-Ziza-6(13)-en-12-al

0–1.5%

(E)-Isovalencenal

0.7–1.4%

Preziza-7(15)-ene

0.6–1.4%

(Z)-Eudesma-6,11-dien-

3b-ol

0–1.4%

Intermedeol (eudesm-11-

en-4-ol)

0–1.3%

Isoeugenol

0–1.3%

Isokhusenic acid

0–1.3%

Elemol

0.3–1.2%

Eremophila-1(10),6-dien-

12-al

0–1.2%

Juniper camphor

0–1.2%

Khusimone

0.5–1.1%

Eremophila-1(10),4(15)-

dien-2a-ol

0–1.1%

Eremophila-1(10),7(11)-

dien-2b-ol

0–1.1%

(Z)-Isovalencenal

0–1.1%

allo-Khusiol

0–1.1%

Methyl-(E)-eremophila-

1(10),7(11)-dien-12-ether

0–1.1%

(E)-2-Nor-zizaene

0–1.1%

(Z)-Eudesm-6-en-12-al

0–1.0%

Funebran-15-al

0–1.0%

2.3 Pharmacological Effects of Vetiver

Essential Oil

Traditional medicine in South Asia especially India

used dried root, infused root or stem/leaf in boiling

water, to treat illness e.g. headache, fever, diarrhoea,

dysentery, malaria, epilepsy, snake bite, burn.

Vetiver root treat patient by cooling and calming

effect. VEO has some pharmacological effects, e.g.

antioxidant, antiinflammation, antifungal, anti-

parasite, antibacterial, hepatoprotective,

antidepressant, antianxiety, antihyperglycemia

(Zahoor et al., 2018).

VEO has antifungal effect against Aspergillus

fumigatus, Microsporum canis, Trichophyton,

interdigitale, T. mentagrophytes, T. rubrum,

Candida albicans, Aspergillus nigra, Aspergillus

clavatus (Zahoor et al., 2018; Petersen, 2014). VEO

has antibacterial effect against Mycobacterium

tuberculosis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, gram

positive bacteria (S. aureus, B. subtilis), and gram

negative bacteria (P. aeruginosa, E. coli). VEO can

kill mosquito larva Aedes aegypti and lethal to

Trichomonas vaginalis (Petersen, 2014). VEO has

antiparasitic effect e.g. against nematode. Study by

Jindapunnapat et al. (2018), showed nematoxic

effect against Meloidogyne incognita. VEO cause

mortality of Meloidogyne incognita 40-70%

(Jindapunnapat et al., 2018).

The nervous system mainly brain can be affected

by VEO. VEO can travel across blood brain barrier.

VEO has benefits in case seizure, migraine, anxiety,

tremor, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Study

by Gupta et al. (2013), showed ethanol extract of

Vetiveria zizanioides has anti-convulsion effect. Oral

dose Vetiver extract 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg

could prevent convulsion. This effect was similar to

oral phenobarbital 20 mg/kg. The anti-convulsion

mechanism perhaps through gamma aminobutyric

acid (GABA). GABA is inhibitory neurotransmitter

which prevent convulsion (Gupta et al., 2013).

VEO has sedative and calming effect. VEO is

used to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. VEO

induces relaxation and sleep via GABA potentiation.

Sesquiterpenes have a role to stimulate GABA. VEO

is useful to treat jetlag (Chomchalow, 2000). GABA

stimulates limbic system in brain in order to calm

and relax. VEO decreased anxiety and depression

score on Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A)

and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D).

VEO reduced stress hormone level e.g. cortisol.

Several studies showed the benefits of VEO to treat

hyperactivity children in Attention Deficit

Hyperkinetic Disorder (ADHD). VEO is useful to

treat emotional conditions and distress e.g. apathy,

desperate, disconnected, scattered, unladed, want to

escape, crisis (MacDonald, 2013). Study by

Saiyudthong et al. (2014), reported inhalation

aromatherapy VEO against rat’s anxiety behavior.

Inhalation 2.5% VEO was similar to diazepam 1

mg/kg i.p. to reduce anxiety behavior and increased

c-fos protein expression in lateral division of central

amygdaloidal nucleus (Saiyudthong et al., 2015).

Amygdala is a part of limbic system in brain which

has function to regulate mood and emotion.

VEO has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant

effects. VEO has been used to treat rheumatism,

muscular and joints illness. VEO enhances blood

flow and oxygenation to tissues (Chomchalow,

2000). VEO becomes one of oils composition to

treat musculoskeletal pain (Parris, 2017).

VEO has benefits for skin problems. VEO

rejuvenates skin, relieves acne, normalizes oily skin,

moisturizes dry skin, reduces tyrosinase enzyme

activity (inhibit melanogenesis / skin pigmentation),

decreases lipid peroxidation (decreases

malondialdehyde level), increases endogenous

antioxidants (superoxide dismutase, catalase,

gluthatione peroxidase). Nowdays VEO has been

The Medical Beneﬁts of Vetiver Essential Oil

applied to skincare products (Chomchalow, 2000;

Burger et al., 2017; Peng et al., 2014).

VEO is cytotoxic to cancer cells. Study by

Powers et al. (2018), showed the cytotoxic effect of

VEO against breast cancer cells (Powers et al.,

2018). VEO also had cytotoxic effect against mouth

epidermal carcinoma and colon cancer cells

(Tisserand and Young, 2014). It seems promising,

however it still need further investigations about the

exact mechanisms.

2.3 Potency of Vetiver Essential Oil in

Health Industry

VEO has promising role in health or medical

treatment. VEO can be applied in many products e.g.

ointment, balm, cream, shampoo, soap, and

aromatherapy. Indonesia is rank as the third biggest

producer in the world however it needs to improve

high quality, especially to treat smoky burn smell

and pesticide contamination. VEO can be useful for

children until elderly. VEO can be developed as

topical and oral products.

4 CONCLUSIONS

VEO has benefits as antifungal, antibacterial, anti-

parasite, anti-convulsion, sedative, antianxiety,

antidepressant, antioxidant, antiinflammation,

analgesic, skin antiaging, and cytotoxic against

cancer. VEO can be useful in to treat neurological,

psychiatric, dermatological, and musculoskeletal

disorders.

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ICEO 2019 - 2nd International Conference of Essential Oil Indonesia