Abstract
Amidst the haze surfacing the earth with the occurrence of ever-increasing diseases, indigenous plant remedies stand as the only ray of hope with its heroic therapeutic properties. Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides L. Nash), a quintessential medicinal and aromatic plant (MAP), is known to possess miraculous therapeutic properties and distinct base note characteristics. The plant stockpiles its essential oil (EO) in the roots which serves as the wellhead of the key natural input to the proliferating cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical, and perfumery industries. The roots exhibit a two-way benefit by forming an intertwined network sustaining the environment as well as producing essential oil, which is highly valued for its aromatic and biological properties. Moreover, the plant seems to be best suited to the adverse conditions of today because of its morphological adaptations. The leaves are adapted such that they can survive stresses such as drought-desiccation, salinity, temperature, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides, etc., while roots are so dense, long, and lacy that they interlock into massive curtain-like structure forming an underground network most suitable for soil and water conservation, land rehabilitation and gully control, slope stabilization, disaster mitigation, improvement of the interface of water and structures, water quality, remediation of polluted sites, agricultural uses, and other applications that are unrelated to the forgoing. The phenomenal nature of vetiver is realized because of its multifarious utilities. The roots as well as aboveground parts are known to benefit almost all segments of humankind. Vetiver oil has distinctive rich balsamic tonality indicating that the EO is mainly composed of highly complex volatile sesquiterpene and its derivatives. Apart from its direct applications in perfumery industry, vetiver oil in its dilute form is extensively used commercially in food and cosmetic industries and aromatherapy. Furthermore, the essential oil is reported to greatly underpin pharmaceutical industry as it exhibits anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antidiabetic, anticataleptic, anti-arthritic, sedative, calming, antidiuretic, antimicrobial, antifungal, herbicidal, insecticidal, antioxidant, and even anticancer activities. The following section highlights the botanical information, update of essential oil composition, economics, extraction, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, cellular compartmentalization, ethnobotanical significance, and their therapeutic properties discovered and proved in the past decades and their potential for future exploitation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aarthi N, Murugan K (2010) Larvicidal and repellent activity of Vetiveria zizanioides L, Ocimum basilicum L. and microbial pesticide spinosad against malarial vector, Anopheles stephensi Liston (Insecta:Diptera: Culicidae). J Biopest 3:199–204
Aggarwal KK, Singh A, Kahol AP, Singh M (1998) Parameters of vetiver oil distillation. J Herbs Spices Med Plants 6:55–61
Anonymous (2012) National institute of science communication and information resources (NISCAIR), (CSIR), Dr K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi −110 012
Are KS, Adelana AO, Adeyolanu OD, Oyeogbe IA, Adelabu L (2012) Comparative effects of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) strips, vetiver mulch and veticompost on soil quality and erodibility of a sloping land. Agric tropica et subtrop 45:189–198
Astani A, Reichling J, Schnitzler P (2010) Comparative study on the antiviral activity of selected monoterpenes derived from essential oils. Phytother Res 24:673–679
Astani A, Reichling J, Schnitzler P (2011) Screening for antiviral activities of isolated compounds from essential oils. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2011:8. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nep187
Babprasert C, Karintayakit P (1996) Vegetable pest management by using essential oil from vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides Nash). In: Abstracts of papers presented at ICV–1, Chiang Rai, Thailand, p 138
Balasankar D, Vanilarasu K, Preetha PS, Umadevi SR, Bhowmik D (2013) Journal of medicinal plants studies. J Med Plant 1:3
Barad R, Atodariya U, Bhatt S, Patel H, Upadhyay S, Upadhyay U (2013) Antibacterial and preliminary cytotoxic activity of the roots of Vetiveria zizanioides. Int J Pharm Rev Res 3:23–25
Bhatwadekar SV, Pednekar PR, Chakravarti KK, Paknikar SK (1982) Survey of sesquiterpenoids of vetiver oil. Cultivation and utilization of aromatic plants/edited by CK Atal and BM Kapur, India, p 412–426
Burt S (2004) Essential oils: their antimicrobial properties and potential application in foods – a review. Int J Food Microbiol 94:223–253
Celiktas OY, Kocabas EEH, Bedir E, Sukan FV, Ozek T, Baser KHC (2007) Antimicrobial activities of methanol extracts and essential oils of Rosmarinus officinalis depending on location and seasonal variations. Food Chem 100:553–559
Charles DJ (2013) Fennel. In: Antioxidant properties of spices, herbs and other sources. Springer, New York, pp 287–293
Chitra T, Jayashree S, Rathinamala J (2014) Evaluation of anticancer activity of Vetiveria zizanioides against human breast cancer cell line. Int J Pharm Pharmaceut Sci 6:164–166
Chomchalow N, Chapman K (2003) Other uses and utilization of vetiver. In: Proceedings of the 3 rd conferences of vetiver and exhibition, p 6–9
Chomchalow N, Lekskul S, Pichitakul N, Wasuwat S (1970) Researches on essential oils at ASRCT. ASST Newslett 3:49–63
Chomchalow N (2001) The utilization of vetiver as medicinal and aromatic plants with special reference to Thailand. PRVN Tech.Bull. No. 2001/1, ORDPB, Bangkok
Chou ST, Lai CP, Lin CC, Shih Y (2012) Study of the chemical composition, antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity of essential oil from Vetiveria zizanioides. Food Chem 134:262–268
Chen F, Wang X, Kim HJ (2003) Antioxidant, anticarcinogenic and termiticidal activities of vetiver oil. Proceeding of third international Vetiver conference, Guangzhou, China
Dahiya D, Srinivasan KK, Subburaju T, Sachin KS (2011) Antimicrobial activity of alcoholic and aqueous extracts of Vetiveria zizanioides. J Pharm Res 4:1343–1344
Danh T (2007) Development of process for purification of α and β-vetivone from Vetiver essential oil and Investigation of effects of heavy metals on quality and quantity of extracted Vetiver oil. University of New South Wales, PhD Thesis
Danh LD, Truong P, Mammucari R, Foster N (2009) Response surface method applied to supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of Vetiveria zizanioides essential oil. Chem Eng J 155:617–626
Demole EP, Holzner GW, Youssefi MJ (1995) Malodor formation in alcoholic perfumes containing vetiveryl acetate and vetiver oil. Perfum Flav 20:35–40
Dikshit A, Husain A (1984) Antifungal action of some essential oils against animal pathogens. Fitoterapia 55:171–176
Dowthwaite SV, Rajani S (2000) Vetiver: perfumer’s liquid gold. In: Proceedings of ICV–2 held in Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand, p 478–81
Dubey N, Raghav CS, Gupta RL, Chhonkar SS (2010) Chemical composition and antifungal activity of vetiver oil of North and South India against Rhizoctonia solani. Pest Res J 22:63–67
Duke JA (2002) Handbook of medicinal herbs, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL
Efferth T, Greten HJ (2012) Medicinal and aromatic plant research in the 21st century. Med Aromat Plant 1:e110
Efferth T, Herrmann F, Tahrani A, Wink M (2011) Cytotoxic activity of secondary metabolites derived from Artemisia annua L. towards cancer cells in comparison to its designated active constituent artemisinin. Phytomedicine 18:959–969
Farooqi AA, Sreeramu BS (2010) Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic crops. Universities press (India) limited, Hyderabad, India
Facey, P. C., Porter, R. B., Reese, P. B., & Williams, L. A. (2005). Biological activity and chemical composition of the essential oil from Jamaican Hyptis verticillata Jacq. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 53(12), 4774–4777.
Gangrade SK, Shrivastava RD, Sharma OP, Mogheand MN, Trivedi KC (1990) Evaluation of some essential oils for antibacterial properties. Indian Perfum 34:204–208
Gupta S (2007) Hand book of essential oil manufacturing and aromatic plants. Eiri boards of consultants and engineers. Engineers India research institute, Delhi, India
Hammer KA, Carson CF, Riley TV (1999) Antimicrobial activity of essential oils and other plant extracts. J Appl Microbiol 86:985–990
Han X, Parker TL (2017) Biological activity of vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) essential oil in human dermal fibroblasts. Cogent Medicine 4:1298176
Handerson G, Laine RA, Heuman DO, Chen F, Zhu BR (2005) Extracts of vetiver oil as repellents and toxicants to ants, ticks and cockroaches. US Patent No. 6.906, 108B2, 2005
Ibrahim SA, Henderson G, Laine RA (2004) Toxicity and behavioral effects of nootkatone, 1, 10-dihydronootkatone and tetrahydronoot-katone on the Formosan subterranean termite (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae). J Econ Entomol 97:102–111
Jain SC, Nowicki S, Eisner T, Meinwald G (1982) Insect repellents from vetiver oil zizanol and epizizanal. Tetrahedron Lett 23:4639–4642
Jayashree S, Rathinamala J, Lakshmanaperumalsamy P (2011) Antimicrobial activity of Vetiveria zizanoides against some pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Int J Phytomed Related Industry 3:151–156
Joy PP, Thomas J, Mathew S, Skaria B (1998) Medicinal plants. In: Aromatic and medicinal plants research station. Kerala Agricultural University, Kerala
Joy RJ (2009) Sunshine vetiver grass Chrysopogon zizanioide (L.)” United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service. www.vetiver.org/USA-NRCS_Sunshine.pdf
Karan SK, Mishra SK, Pal D, Mondal A (2012) Isolation of sitosterol and evaluation of antidiabetic activity of Aristolochia indica in alloxan-induced diabetic mice with a reference to in vitro antioxidant activity. J Med Plants Res 6:1219–1223
Kaushal S, Chahal KK (2008) Schiff bases of khusilal: Synthesis and their antifungal activity. Pestol 32:47–49
Khesorn N, Manasnant B, Banyong K, Chantana K (2010) Antimicrobial activity of alkaloid from roots of Vetiveria zizanoides (L.) Nash ex Small. Thai Pharm Health Sci J 5:99–102
Kim HJ, Chen F, Wang X, Jin Z, Chung HY (2005) Evaluation of antioxidant activity of vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides L.) oil and identification of its antioxidant constituents. J Agric Food Chem 53:7691–7695
Kloer DP, Welsch R, Beyer P, Schulz GE (2006) Structure and reaction geometry of geranyl geranyl diphosphate synthase from Sinapis alba. Biochemistry 45:15197–15204
Kochhar SL (2009) Economic botany in the tropics. Macmillan, India
Korpraditkul R, Ratanakreetakul JS, Swasdipanich S (1996) The extracts of vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) for acaricidal effect on cattle tick (Boophilus microplus). In: Proceeding of ICV–3, Chiang Rai, Thailand, p 140
Kumar TP, Surayakanata N, Karan S (2010) In vitro free radical scavenging activity of Vetiveria zizanioides. J Pharm Res 3:681
Laule O, Furholz A, Chang HS, Zhu T, Wang X, Heifetz PB, Gruissem W, Lange BM (2003) Crosstalk between cytosolic and plastidial pathways of isoprenoid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100:6866–6871
Lavania UC (2003) Other uses and utilization of vetiver: vetiver oil. In The Third International Vetiver Conference, Guangzhou, China
Lixin M, Henderson G, Laina RA (2004) Germination of various weed species in response to vetiver oil and nootkatone. Weed Technol 18:263–267
Lixin M, Henderson G, Wayne JB, Vaugh JA, Laina RA (2006) Vetiver oil and nootkatone effects on the growth of pea and citrus. Ind Crop Prod 23:327–332
Luqman S, Kumar R, Kaushik S, Srivastava S, Darokar MP, Khanuja SPS (2009) Antioxidant potential of the root of Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash. J Biochem Biophy 46:122–125
Luqman S, Srivastava S, Darokar MP, Khanuja SPS (2005) Detection of antibacterial activity in spent roots of two genotypes of aromatic grass Vetiveria zizanioides. Pharm Biol 43:732–736
Maistrello L, Henderson G, Laine RA (2003) Comparative effects of vetiver oil, nootkatone and disodium octaboratetetrahydrate on Coptotermes formosanus and its symbiotic fauna. Pest Manag Sci 59:58–68
Maistrello L, Henderson G, Laine RA (2001) Efficacy of vetiver oil and nootkatone as soil barriers against Formosan subterranean termite (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae). J Econ Entomol 94:1532–1537
Martinez J, Rosa PTV, Menut C, Leydet A, Brat P, Pallet D, Meireles MAA (2004) Valorisation of Brazilian vetiver oil. J Agric Food Chem 52:6578–6584
Mishra HP (2000) Effectiveness of indigenous plant products against pulse beetle Callosobruchus chinensis on stored black gram. Indian J Entomol 62:218–220
Morris ET (1983) Vetiver: gift of India. Dragoco Report 6:158–165
Nair EVG, Chinnamma NP, Kumari RP (1979) Review of work done on vetiver at Lemongrass Research Station Odakkali. Ind Perfum 23:199–201
Ndemah R, Gounou S, Schulthess F (2002) The role of wild grasses in the management of Lepidopterous stem-borers on the maize in the humid tropics of western Africa. Bull Entomol Res 92:507–519
Nix KE, Handerson I, Lain RA (2003) Field evaluation of nootkatone and tetrahydronootkatone as wood treatment against Coptotermes formosan. Sociobiology 42:413–424
Pangnakorn U (2009) Efficiency of vetiver grass extracts against cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculates Fabr.). Am-Eurasian J Agric Environ Sci 6:356–359
Peyron L (1989) Vetiver in perfumery. Quintessenza 13:4–14
Pohlit AM, Lopes NP, Gama RA, Tadei WP, Neto VF (2011) Patent literature on mosquito repellent inventions which contain plant essential oils – a review. Planta Med 77:598–617
Qazi GN (2003) Resources, technologies and knowledge-sharing on MAPs from India. In: Workshop on strengthening cooperation of MAPs national focal points, ICS-UNIDO, Trieste Italy, p 26–27
Rao RC, Gal CS, Granger I, Gleye J, Augereau JM, Bessibes C (1994) Khusimol, a non-peptide ligand for vasopressin V1a receptors. J Nat Prod 57:1329–1335
Rao RR, Suseela MR (2000) Vetiveria zizanioides (Linn.) Nash – a multipurpose eco-friendly grass of India. ICV–2 held in Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand, p 18–22
Reichling J, Schnitzler P, Suschke U, Saller R (2009) Essential oils of aromatic plants with antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and cytotoxic properties- an overview. Forsch Komplementmed 16:79–90
Sangeetha D, Stella D (2012) Screening of antimicrobial activity of vetiver extracts against certain pathogenic microorganisms. Int J Pharm Bio Arch 3:197–203
Schalk M, Deguerry F (2013) Cytochrome P450 and use thereof for the enzymatic oxidation of terpenes. Patent WO 2013064411 A1, May 10, 2013
Sertel S, Eichhorn T, Plinkert PK, Efferth T (2011a) Chemical Composition and antiproliferative activity of essential oil from the leaves of a medicinal herb, Levisticum officinale, against UMSCC1 head and neck squamous carcinoma cells. Anticancer Res 31:185–191
Sertel S, Eichhorn T, Plinkert PK, Efferth T (2011b) Cytotoxicity of Thymus vulgaris essential oil towards human oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. Anticancer Res 31:81–87
Sharma PK, Raina AP, Dureja P (2009) Evaluation of the antifungal and phytotoxic effects of various essential oils against Sclerotium rolfsii (Sacc) and Rhizoctonia bataticola (Taub). Phytopathol Plant Prot 42:65–72
Singh G, Singh BS, Kumar BRV (1978) Antimicrobial activity of essential oils against keratinophilic fungi. Indian Drugs 16: 43−45
Singh S, Singh DP (1998) Cultivation and distillation technologies of vetiver. Technical Bulletin No. 6. Fragrance and Flavour Development Centre, Kannauj, India
Skocibusic MN, Bezic DV (2006) Phytochemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from Satureja subspicata Vis. growing in Croatia. Food Chem 96:20–28
Sujatha S (2010) Essential oil and its insecticidal activity of medicinal aromatic plant Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) against the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). J Agric Sci 2:84–88
Techapinyawat S (1994) The use of vetiver to control the growth of crops and weed. Progress Report, Botany Department Kasetsart University, Bangkok
The Wealth of India: Raw materials (2003) Vol. III, National institute of science communication and information resources (CSIR), Pusa, New Delhi, India, p 210–211
Thubthimthed S, Thisayakorn K, Rerkam U, Tangstirapakdee S, Suntorntanasat T (2003) Vetiver oil and its sedative effect. In: The 3rd International Vetiver Conference, Guangzhou, China p. 492–494
Trivedi PC (2007) Medicinal plants traditional knowledge. IK, International publishing house pvt. ltd., New Delhi, India
Vanden BJ, Midega C, Wadhams LJ, Khan ZR (2000) Can vetiver grass be used to manage insect pests on crops? Entomol Soc 34:45–49
Viano J, Gaydou E, Smadja J (1991) Sur la presence de bacteries intracellulaires dans les racines du Vetiveria zizanioides (L.). Staph Rev Cytol Biol Végét-Bot 14:65–70
Vimala Y, Anuj KA, Gupta MK (2005) Physico-chemical interpretation of allelopathic interaction of vetiver with two non-edible oil yielding fence plants. J Exp Bot 2:141–150
Weiss EA (1997) Vetiver. In: Essential oil crops. CAB International, Oxford, pp 117–137
Wilson R (1995) Aromatherapy for vibrant health and beauty. Penguin Putnam Inc, New York
Zhu B, Henderson G, Chen F, Maistrello E, Laine RA (2001) Nootkatone is a repellent for Formosan Subterranean termites (Coptotermes formosanus). J Chem Edu 27:523–531
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shabbir, A., Khan, M.M.A., Ahmad, B., Sadiq, Y., Jaleel, H., Uddin, M. (2019). Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash: A Magic Bullet to Attenuate the Prevailing Health Hazards. In: Ozturk, M., Hakeem, K. (eds) Plant and Human Health, Volume 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03344-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03344-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03343-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03344-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)