The first records of essential oils come from ancient India, Persia and Egypt. Both Greece and Rome conducted extensive trade in odoriferous oils with countries of the Orient (referring to erstwhile countries of Asia). The much-prized spices of India, China and the Indies served as the impetus for the advent of European traders to India.…
Applications of aromatic plants and volatile oils extracted from them include Furthermore, the requirements of essential oils for use in aromatherapy are increasing, creating a demand for organically produced exotic oils.
Most volatile oil-bearing plants are found in the tropical world and cannot be easily grown in other geoclimatic regions. Whereas the commercially important volatile oil-bearing plants of the temperate and subtropical regions can easily be grown in the tropics. Essential oil-bearing plants are spread over a wide range of families of both Angiosperms and Gymnosperms.…
Essential oils are highly volatile substances isolated by a physical process from an aromatic plant of a single botanical species. Such oils were called ‘essential’ because they were thought to represent the very essence of the odour and flavour of the plant. Aromatic plants include herbs, shrubs and trees of all sizes, and may be…
Phytochemicals are employed either directly or indirectly by a large number of industries including pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, agrochemical and chemurgic industries. Economically important plants serve as irreplaceable sources of several industrial phytochemicals (exclusive of plant-derived products such as wood, cork, paper, etc., and whole plant-based foods such as whole grains, nuts, vegetables, fruits and spices). Table…
Considerable volumes of plant material are used in traditional systems of medicine, particularly in Asia. China’s total output of medicinal plants from both cultivated and wild-harvested sources is 1,600,000 tonnes. In comparison, that of Germany is relatively small at 40,000 tonnes. China is also a significant exporter of medicinal materials with export sales in 1993…
Certain plants are rich sources of intermediates used in the production of drugs. For e.g., plant saponins such as Dioscin (from Dioscorea tubers) can be extracted and altered chemically to produce sapogenins (diosgenin) required to manufacture medicinally important steroids. Steroidal saponins are of great pharmaceutical importance because of their relationship to compounds such as sex…
Phytochemicals from medicinal plants are receiving ever greater attention in the scientific literature, in medicine and in the world economy in general. According to Farnsworth out of 1.532 billion prescriptions dispensed in the United States in 1973, 41.2% contained one or more constituents derived from plants. An analysis of such plant derived medicines used in…
The use of galenicals or plant extracts directly for therapeutic purpose in modern medicine stems from the herbal remedies of the Middle Ages. In addition to this such extracts may provide the first stage in the isolation of active ingredients. With the resurgence of interest in herbal medicine several of these plant extracts have regained…
Medicinal plant material is used by a large number of industries including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents, dyes, insecticides, foods and paints. Demand for medicinal plants is undoubtedly increasing in the medicinal and health-related sectors and this growth is fuelling an increase in both the number of species and volume of plant material being traded. It is…