Seizure prevention by the naturally occurring phenols, carvacrol and thymol in a partial seizure-psychomotor model

[Display omitted] The natural compounds carvacrol and thymol completely prevented seizures in the 6Hz, 32mA partial seizure model. Carvacrol and thymol, both exhibited an ED50=35.8mg/kg, ip and yielded protective indices of 5.3 and 3.4, respectively. At 44mA current intensity, carvacrol and thymol exhibited ED50s of 88.82mg/kg (PI=2.15) and 73.0mg/kg (PI=1.65), respectively. Thymol, but not carvacrol showed partial inhibitory activity in the maximal electroshock (MES), sc Metrazol (scMET) and Corneal-kindled models. These results suggest that carvacrol and thymol are more efficacious anticonvulsants than suggested by their lower efficacies in the conventional MES and scMET tests.