Introduction

Inflammation is a complex biological response derived from damaging stimuli such as wounds, infections, pathogens, and other foreign substances. In a typical case, the organism attempts to remove harmful stimuli through a meticulous process, initiating the self-healing protective defense against infection (Chong et al., 2019). On the other hand, in some diseases, the immune system produces an inflammatory response in the absence of foreign substances or infection. These heterogeneous diseases are characterized by an overproduction of inflammatory cytokines that include interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) (Gu et al., 2012). Synthetic anti-inflammatory compounds have been widely employed for suppressing or inhibiting these mediators. However, side effects are commonly related to their application. For this reason, in recent years, natural products have been explored as an alternative drug delivery treatment with safe toxicological profiles.

In this context, terpenes are a highly diverse family of natural products which are synthesized by plants. This family have approximately 55,000 members with different chemical structures, presenting potential practical applications (Prakash, 2017; Serrano Vega et al., 2018). For this reason, it has been reported that terpenoids could ameliorate various symptoms caused by inflammation, inhibiting various steps of inflammatory processes. However, due to their low solubility and high instability, some alternatives, such as nanotechnology, have been explored.

This article aims to provide a comprehensive short review of this class of compounds and their potential application as an anti-inflammatory treatment therapy. Furthermore, we mention the nanoformulations and dosages of these compounds to evaluate differences triggered by these conditions and offer a global perspective