Research Article Effects of Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Persoon Essential Oil Aromatherapy on Mood States and Salivary Cortisol Levels in Healthy Volunteers Chaiyavat Chaiyasut , 1 Bhagavathi Sundaram Sivamaruthi , 1 Jakkrit Wongwan, 1 Kanyarat Thiwan, 1 Wandee Rungseevijitprapa, 2 Areewan Klunklin, 3 and Wipada Kunaviktikul 3 1 Innovation Center for Holistic Health, Nutraceuticals and Cosmeceuticals, Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, ailand 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ubon Ratchathani University, Ubon Ratchathani 34190, ailand 3 Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, ailand Correspondence should be addressed to Chaiyavat Chaiyasut; chaiyavat@gmail.com Received 5 March 2020; Revised 9 July 2020; Accepted 13 July 2020; Published 26 July 2020 Academic Editor: Filippo Maggi Copyright © 2020 Chaiyavat Chaiyasut et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies to improve health. e aromatic essential oils have been used in the treatment procedure through inhalation of essential oil vapor, massage, and herbal bathing. Litsea species are generally used in traditional medicine, and Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Persoon is a potent fumigant plant, used in cosmetics and foods as essence. e chemical composition of the essential oil of different parts of L. cubeba has been found to be varied. L. cubeba essential oil (LEO) is known for the treatment of cognition-associated discomforts. e current study assessed the impact of inhalation of LEO on mood states and salivary cortisol levels of healthy people. Fifteen healthy volunteers were involved in the study. e Profile of Mood States (POMS) Questionnaire and ELISA methods were employed to determine the mood states and salivary cortisol level, respectively. (-)-β-pinene, β-citral, cis- and trans-citral, citronellal, limonene, linalool, and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one were de- tected in LEO by GC-MS analysis. e heart rate and blood pressure were not affected significantly during LEO exposure. e inhalation of LEO significantly improved the total mood disturbance and reduced the confusion among the healthy human subjects. LEO inhalation reduced the salivary cortisol level at a notable level. e results of the current study warrant further studies on the beneficial effect of LEO aromatherapy in healthy and diseased subjects to uncover the therapeutic nature of the L. cubeba plant. 1. Introduction Aromatherapy is one of the complementary therapies to improve health. e aromatic essential oils have been used in the treatment procedure through inhalation of essential oil vapor, massage, and herbal bathing. Aromatherapy helps to improve the quality of the lifespan of chronic patients. For instance, the lavender oil-based aromatic massage therapy and Rosa damascene Mill essential oil therapy improved the sleep quality of cardiac patients [1, 2]. Litsea is one of the diverse genera, which contains 200–400 species of the Lauraceae family distributed across the tropical and subtropical regions. Litsea species are commonly used in the traditional medicine of several na- tions for thousands of years [3]. Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Persoon is an aromatic plant widely scattered in Australia, America, Japan, China, and Southeastern Asia [4]. L. cubeba is a potent fumigant plant [5] and also used in cosmetics and foods as essence [6, 7]. e chemical composition of the essential oil of different parts of L. cubeba has been reported Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2020, Article ID 4389239, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4389239