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

The natural compounds carvacrol and thymol completely prevented seizures in the 6 Hz, 32 mA partial seizure model. Carvacrol and thymol, both exhibited an ED₅₀ = 35.8 mg/kg, ip and yielded protective indices of 5.3 and 3.4, respectively. At 44 mA current intensity, carvacrol and thymol exhibited ED₅₀s of 88.82 mg/kg (PI = 2.15) and 73.0 mg/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.