**4. Conclusion**

Essential oils are the oil of nature, sent by nature, the spirit of nature, and the soul of the forest. Their scent depends on their composition that in turn depends on the enzymatic package of the plant species. This enzymatic package can be influenced by external factors that can be biotic, depending on a living organism, or abiotic depending on molecules or climate and geography. The pharmacological potential of this spirit of the forest is a fact. But the scientific proof of that fact is subject to misunderstanding or misinterpretation. That may be why it is difficult to have essential oil recommended as an official drug for a disease. In fact, there are many variations that could affect the chemical composition not in the plant but during essential oil processes from plant collection time to the analytic method and the data interpretation. As well, Aromatic plants containing these scent of the nature are mostly present in tropical part of the word, and most of those tropical countries are developing countries and as such they do not have robust technology equipment to test and prove the whole efficiency of that essential oils, spirit of nature. To solve these small but crucial issues, scientists should come along with a robust analytical tool (FTIR, for example) and standard postharvest and extraction protocols for standardization of all essential oils not only in few local pharmacopeias but on a world level.

**27**

**Author details**

Cameroon

Jean Baptiste Hzounda Fokou1

University of Yaoundé I, Yaounde, Cameroon

provided the original work is properly cited.

and Fabrice Fekam Boyom3

\*, Pierre Michel Jazet Dongmo2

1 Antimicrobial and Biocontrol Agent Unit, Department of Biochemistry,

3 Anti-Microbial and Biocontrol Agent Unit, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde,

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

2 Department of Biochemistry University Douala, Douala, Cameroon

\*Address all correspondence to: hzoundafokou@gmail.com

*Essential Oil's Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Properties*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86573*

### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Essential Oil's Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Properties DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86573*
