Evaluating Psychobiologic Effects Induced by Essential Oils Using Multianalysis of Salivary Biomarkers

To construct a multiple salivary biomarkers model that best reflects the influence of the olfactive stimuli of blended essential oil. The biomarkers were selected to capture the change in three systems managing human system such as salivary alpha-amylase activity for sympathetic nerve system, salivary cortisol for endocrine system, and seventeen salivary cytokines for immune system by utilizing multiplexed immunoassay. Thirteen healthy Japanese women were enrolled in the study. The saliva samples were collected at multiple sampling points before and after inhaling 2 types of blended essential oil samples and no odor (negative control). Different biological models were obtained from each blended essential oil presentations, one with IL-7 and the other with Cortisol, IL-1β, and IL-7. The receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that the later model showed fair discriminant capability (area under the curve: 0.899) of the olfactive stimulation by blended essential oil. The quantifiable relationship between olfactive stimulation and salivary biomarkers could be useful to express the psychobiologic effect induced by essential oils.