Reply to comments by Dr Eisenhut.

摘要

I appreciate Dr Eisenhut's concerns; however, I believe that he has neglected the issue of dose dependency in antimicrobial agents. It is well established that any chemical agent, including essential oils or commercially available antibiotics used in combating infectious diseases, may exert adverse effects. The antimicrobial doses suggested by us in our paper are well below the doses referred to by Dr Eisenhut. For example, reference 2 cited by Dr Eisenhut regarding the hepatotoxicity of clove oil describes "a 15-month-old boy who developed fulminant hepatic failure after ingesting 10 mlbf clove oil". Please note that 10 ml of clove oil is certainly toxic not only to a 15-month -old baby but also to any adult. Reference 7 cited by Dr Eisenhut states: "In all cases, the upper limit of the dose interval tested was either the highest non-toxic dose or the lowest dose of the