Table 3.

Medicinal properties of plant-based substances.

	Menthol	Camphor	Eucalyptus oil	Turpentine oil	Thymol	Cedar leaf oil	Nutmeg oil
Plant	Mentha x piperita (Peppermint) and other members of the mint family	Cinnamomum camphora (Camphor laurel)	Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian blue gum) and other members of the eucalyptus family	Pinus Pinaster (Maritime pine) and other members of the pine family	Thymus vulgaris	Thuja orientalis (Arbor vitae) and other members of the Cupressaceae family	Myristica fragrans (Fragrant nutmeg)
Medicinal properties described
Antibacterial	✓	–	✓	–	–	✓	–
Analgesic	✓	✓	✓	–	–	–	✓
Anti-inflammatory	–	✓	✓	✓	–	–	✓
Antioxidant	–	–	✓	✓	–	✓	✓
Antiviral	–	–	–	✓	–	✓	–
Antimicrobial	–	–	✓	✓	✓	–	✓
Antitussive	✓	✓	–	–	✓	–	–
Antipyretic	–	–	–	–	✓	–	–
Expectorant	–	✓	–	✓	✓	–	–
Sedative	–	–	–	–	✓	–	–
Cooling effect	✓	–	–	–	–	–	–
Counter irritant	–	✓	–	–	–	–	–

✓ = Medicinal properties most relevant to the management of cold symptoms.

Adapted from Stinson et al.59