Because EOAZ acts on important physiological
parameters, such as arterial pressure and muscle
contractility, and because many essential oils and their
chemical constituents are known to have potent local
anaesthetic activity (Brodin and Roed, 1984a b; Dallmeier
and Carlini, 1981; Ghelardini et al., 1999) the
question naturally arises whether EOAZ acts on an
important type of excitable cell, the neuron. To answer
that question, the present investigation was undertaken
on the rat sciatic nerve, which has motor and sensorial
fibers. This study demonstrates that EOAZ depresses
the amplitude and conduction velocity of the compound
action potential (CAP) of the sciatic nerve.