<p xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><bold>Isolation of essential oils</bold>. The EO was obtained by hydrodistillation, according to Ph. Eur. 5.0 [<bold><xref rid="R3" ref-type="bibr">3</xref></bold>], by using a modified Clevenger apparatus (with the EO collection area cooled to prevent the emergence of artifacts). The EO was dried on anhydrous sodium sulfate (Sigma-Aldrich Chemie GmbH) and stored in a tightly sealed brown glass bottle at 0-4&#176;C for testing.</p>