Department of Metabolism and Pathological Biochemistry, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. mbpsegr@iss.it
Carvacrol is a component of numerous aromatic plants. Up to now, no toxicological data were available. Carvacrol show a weak activity in the mutagenicity studies. Moreover, in the metabolism study, carvacrol has shown to be excreted with urine after 24 h in large quantities or unchanged or as glucoronide and sulphate conjugates. The available data do not allow the assessment of the NOEL. Further toxicological studies are needed.