INTRODUCTION
Exposure to natural environment is beneficial to human health (1). Among environmental exposures, the effects of forest have been emphasized in many studies (2). Recently, it has been shown that a short trip to forest environments has therapeutic effects in children with asthma and atopic dermatitis (3). Based on these studies, healthcare programs to use forest have been developed in several countries (2,4,5). For example, in the United States, “forest recreation” became recognized as the most valuable use of forest in the 1960s in light of social welfare (4). In Germany, a complementary and alternative medicine practice called “Kneipp therapy” is frequently used (6). Kneipp therapy includes five preventive and curative methods created by Sebastian Kneipp, a German priest (5), in which exercise in a forest is one of the five core methods (2). Japan is one of the countries where the forest usage programs for human health are well developed. The Forest Agency of the Japanese government introduced the term “Shinrin-yoku,” defined as “taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing” in 1982, and instituted the “Therapeutic effects of forests plan” in 2005 (2).
Many studies have shown meaningful physiological effects of forest atmosphere on people (2,7,8). These effects are believed to be achieved by inhaling the forest atmosphere, which includes various phytochemicals mainly produced by trees. The major components of the forest atmosphere are terpenes, which are the largest class of naturally occurring organic compounds (9) with more than 40,000 structures reported so far (9,10). Their basic chemical structure consists of an isoprene unit (C5H8) (11). Depending on the number of isoprene units, terpenes are classified as mono-, sesqui-, and di-terpenes (C10, C15, and C20, respectively) (Fig. 1A) (12). Terpenes have enormous chemical structural diversity that is generated by various terpenoid metabolic pathways as well as the specialized cell types that participate in their biosynthesis (13). The biosynthesis of terpenes uses two common C5 building blocks, dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP), derived from acetyl coenzyme A (14). Head-to-tail condensation of DMAPP and IPP generates the monoterpene precursor, geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP, C10) (Fig. 1B) (15). Furthermore, sesquiterpenes and diterpenes are created by condensation of additional IPP units to GPP (Fig. 1B) (15,16).
You are viewing: Which Terpene Is Associated With Respiratory Health
Read more : Which Weather Variable Can Be Determined By Using A Psychrometer
Terpenes are produced by various plants, particularly conifers (13). Many of the terpenes are associated with not only the defense mechanism of the plant against herbivores and the environment (11,17) but also their developmental physiology (9). Korean forests mainly consist of various types of conifers, and many terpenes derived from them have been detected, such as α-pinene, β-pinene, camphor, camphene, sabinene, limonene, menthol, cymene, and myrcene (18). Conifer oleoresins contain monoterpenes (e.g., pinene and camphor) and diterpenes (e.g., taxadiene and phytane) as major components and sesquiterpenes (e.g., nerolidol and (E)-α-bisabolene) as minor components (17).
Given that the forest atmosphere is beneficial to human health and that terpenes are the main components of forest aerosols, we reviewed the effects of various terpenes from Korean forests on human health, especially on immunity, cancer, and neuronal health.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHICH
