Table 1.

Medicinal properties and chemical structures of the plant derived substances frequently found in traditional herbal cough and cold remedies [22, 96, 97, 104, 114, 146–160]

	Menthol	Camphor	Eucalyptus oil	Turpentine oil	Thymol	Cedarleaf 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)
Chemical Structure of Main Pharmacologically Compound
Medicinal properties described
Antibacterial	✓	–	✓	–	–	✓	–
Analgesic	✓	✓	✓	–	–	–	✓
Anti-inflammatory	–	✓	✓	✓	–	–	✓
Antioxidant	–	–	✓	✓	–	✓	✓
Antiviral	–	–	–	✓	–	✓	–
Antimicrobial	–	–	✓	✓	✓	–	✓
Antitussive	✓	✓	–	–	✓	–	–
Antipyretic	–	–	–	–	✓	–	–
Expectorant	–	✓	–	✓	✓	–	–
Sedative	–	–	–	–	✓	–	–
Cooling effect	✓	–	–	–	–	–	–
Counter irritant	–	✓	–	–	–	–	–
Antipruritic	*	*	–	–	–	–	–
Antifungal	*	–	*	–	*	*	–
Antiseptic	*	–	–	*	–	–	*
Antispasmodic	–	*	–	–	*	–	–
H1 receptor antagonist	–	–	*	–	–	–	–
Antiparasitic	–	–	–	*	*	–	–
Astringent	–	–	–	–	–	*	–
Disinfectant	–	–	*	–	–	–	–

✓denotes medicinal properties most relevant to the management of cold symptoms

*denotes additional medicinal properties not specifically related to cold symptoms