Abstract
Ozonated vegetable oils have demonstrated promising results for clinical application, and they have been the focus of great pharmaceutical interest to treat dermatological disorders, such as infections of skin ulcers and chronic wounds. There are reports of these products as effective to heal refractory wounds, where conventional treatments and available medications prove ineffective. In fact, in some European countries, such as Germany, they can be obtained on prescription from pharmacies. Countries such as Cuba have developed commercial ozonated oils, and they have been successfully tested to treat many diseases. Cuba is one of the pioneers in the implementation of this therapy in Public Health Services for over 22 years. Ozone reacts with the double bonds of unsaturated fatty acids of vegetable oils, providing stable ozonation products, mainly ozonides, hydroperoxides and polyperoxides (depending on reaction conditions) with therapeutic potential. Several studies have demonstrated their antimicrobial and antifungal activity, as well as their role as wound healing modulators, showing no cytotoxicity when tested against NIH/3T3 murine fibroblast cells. Simple analytical techniques such as peroxide value, iodine value and viscosity determination have been extensively used for characterization of products, together with spectroscopic techniques of NMR (1H and 13C) and infrared, chromatography and thermal analysis (DSC). This chapter aims to highlight recent contributions to the production, characterization and biological activities of ozonated vegetable oils.
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