The family Lamiaceae or Labiatae contains many valuable medicinal plants. In the family are 236 genera and between 6900 and 7200 species. To the most abundant genera belong Salvia (900 species), Scutellaria (360), Stachys (300), Plectranthus (300), Hyptis (280), Teucrium (250), Vitex (250), Thymus (220), and Nepeta (200). Lamiaceae plants rich in essential oils have great worth in natural medicine, pharmacology, cosmetology, and aromatherapy [25]. The essential oils are mostly present in leaves, however, they can be found in flowers, buds, fruits, seeds, rind, wood, or roots [26]. Essential oils are mixtures of volatile compounds, which are secondary plant metabolites. They play a role in the defense system of higher plants [27]. Essential oils may contain over 300 different compounds, mainly of molecular weight below 300 [28]. Some oils, e.g., obtained from Lavandula, Geranium, or Rosmarinus, contain 450 to 500 chemicals [29]. Among the active compounds of essential oils are various chemical classes, e.g., alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, esters, phenols, terpenes (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes), and coumarins [30,31].

To the chemical components most commonly found as the main ingredients in essential oils, among plants presented in Table 2, include β-caryophyllene (41 plants), linalool (27 plants), limonene (26), β-pinene (25), 1,8-cineole (22), carvacrol (21), α-pinene (21), p-cymene (20), γ-terpinene (20), and thymol (20) (Figure 2). Sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene seems particularly important antifungal component in the Lamiaceae family. Its activity and its derivatives, such as caryophyllene oxide is well known [134,135,136]. According to Bona et al. [137], essential oils containing high concentrations of phenolic monoterpenes (e.g., carvacrol, p-cymene, thymol) have great antifungal activities. Rich in these substances are, among others Origanum and Thymus plants. Important antifungal chemicals often presented in Lamiaceae are also other monoterpenes as alcohol linalool and cyclic 1,8-cineole, limonene, pinenes, and terpinenes [138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146]. Table 1 shows that all of these antifungal substances are common in presented plants.

In Table 3 are shown the antifungal activities of selected Lamiaceae essential oils. More than half of the essential oils have good activity (<1000 µg/mL) against fungi. In some cases are observed significant discrepancies between different studies. An example could be the action of essential oils from Italian Calamintha nepeta against Candida albicans. In the work of Marongiu et al. [39], minimal inhibitory concentrations amounted to 1.25–2.5 µg/mL, while in Božović et al. [40] MICs were between 780 to 12,480 µg/mL. Differences may be related to the different biochemical composition of the examined essential oils. In results presented by Marongiu et al. [39] the main components of essential oils were pulegone (39.9–64.4%), piperitenone oxide (2.5–19.1%) and piperitenone (6.4–7.7%), while in Božović et al. [40] three main substances were pulegone (37.7–84.7%), crysanthenone (1.3–33.9%) and menthone (0.5–35.4%). Some authors have described that the content of active substances varies depending on the season. In studies of Gonçalves et al. [60] in Mentha cervina during the flowering phase in August amount of isomenthone and pulegone in essential oil amounted 8.7% and 75.1% respectively. Simultaneously, in the vegetative phase in February, the content of both components changed significantly and amounted to 77.0% for isomenthone and 12.9% for pulegone. Similarly, Al-Maskri et al. [75] presented essential changes in some compounds of Ocimum basilicum essential oil between winter and summer. In the summer essential oil, there is significantly more of linalool, p-allylanisole and β-farnesene, and at the same time much less content of limonene and 1,8-cineole. In this work, a seasonal variation of chemical composition is directly related to other antifungal activities. It is particularly evident in action against Aspergillus niger, which was lower in the summer season. Zone of growth inhibition (ZOI) for winter essential oil was 21 mm and MIC > 50 µg/mL, while for summer essential oil-ZOI was 13 mm and MIC > 100 µg/mL [75]. Influence on the content of chemical substances in essential oils also has a method of obtaining them. Ćavar et al. [40] compared the composition of oils obtained from Calamintha glandulosa using three methods: Hydrodistillation (HD), steam distillation (SD) and aqueous reflux extraction (ARE). For example, the level of menthone was 3.3% in ARE, 4.7% in HD, and 8.3% in SD method, while for shisofuran was only 0.1% in HD and SD, and even 9.7% in ARE [40]. Additionally, many other factors can affect antimicrobial activity, such as amount and concentration of inoculum, type of culture medium, pH of the medium and incubation time. All these factors can affect the value of MIC [145]. Differences are visible in Table 2. Generally, it can be assumed that the best activity (MICs < 100) have essential oils from Clinopodium spp. (excluding C. nepeta subsp. glandulosum and C. umbrosum), Lavandula spp., Mentha spp. (excluding M. piperita), Thymbra spp., and Thymus spp. (excluding T. migricus and T. vulgaris). The highest values of MICs are presented among others for Aeollanthus suaveolens, Agastache rugosa, Lepechinia mutica, Mentha × piperita, and Salvia sclarea. Simultaneously, some essential oils have a very different activity, and MIC values differ depending on the region, chemical composition, research methodology, etc. Significant variations can be observed even in Ocimum basilicum (MICs 1–10,000), O. sanctum (MICs 0.1–500), Origanum majorana (MICs 0.5–14,400) or in Thymus vulgaris (MICs 0.08–3600).

The mode of action of essential oils is multidirectional. Essential oils lead to disruption of the cell wall and cell membrane through a permeabilization process. The lipophilic compounds of essential oils can pass through the cell wall and damage polysaccharides, fatty acids, and phospholipids, eventually making them permeable [146,147]. Change of the permeability for H⁺ and K⁺ cations affects cellular pH and damage of cellular organelles [148,149]. Additionally, essential oils inhibit the synthesis of fungal DNA, RNA, proteins, and polysaccharides [150]. Essential oils can also disintegrate mitochondrial membrane [151,152]. It has also been shown that essential oil from Thymus vulgaris inhibits the production of aflatoxins by Aspergillus flavus and leads to the reduction of ergosterol production [123].