Plant extracts play a crucial role in food health and safety. As natural ingredients, they not only enrich the nutritional value of food, but also provide consumers with healthier and safer food choices. Plant extracts are rich in various beneficial nutrients for the human body, such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These ingredients help enhance the human immune system, promote health, and reduce the risk of illness. Compared with chemically synthesized food additives, plant extracts have lower toxicity and higher biocompatibility, making them more suitable for use in food to ensure consumer health. Plant extracts, as natural additives, can replace some chemically synthesized preservatives, antioxidants, etc., thereby reducing the content of chemicals in food. This helps to reduce the potential harm of food to the human body and improve the safety of food.
Meanwhile, plant extracts can also improve sensory characteristics such as taste, color, and texture of food, enhancing consumers' consumption experience. Producing green and organic pure natural plant extracts can greatly enhance consumers' trust in the food industry.
1. Introduction to the Plant Extraction Industry
The plant extract industry refers to the use of appropriate solvents or methods to selectively extract and concentrate one or more active ingredients from plants through physical and chemical extraction and separation processes, without changing their active ingredient structure, resulting in the final product. These products, as important intermediates, are widely used in various industries such as food and beverage, seasoning, medicine, health supplements, nutritional supplements, cosmetics, feed additives, etc.
In the plant extract industry, there are various types of products, which can be divided into three categories based on the content of active ingredients: effective monomer extracts, standard extracts, and ratio extracts; According to their composition, they can be divided into acids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc. These products have natural, green, and pollution-free characteristics, which are in line with modern consumers' pursuit of health and safety products.
Looking ahead to the future, as people's pursuit of natural greenery and health continues to increase, new varieties and application fields of plant extracts will continue to be developed, and the requirements for specialization and refinement will gradually improve. The industry concentration will also gradually increase. Therefore, the plant extract industry has broad development prospects and enormous market potential.
2. Classification of plant extracts
Plant extracts can be classified in various ways, and the following are several common classification methods:
(1) Classified by the content of active ingredients
Effective monomer extract: This refers to compounds extracted from plants with a single biological activity, such as ephedrine in ephedra and berberine in coptis.
Standard extract: refers to plant components extracted according to certain standards or specifications, with fixed content and proportion, such as Ginkgo biloba leaf extract, ginseng extract, etc.
Ratio extract: refers to an extract made by mixing multiple plant components in a certain proportion, aiming to exert the synergistic effect of multiple components.
(2) Classified by components
Glycosides: composed of sugar and non sugar substances, different types of glycosides have different physiological activities and multiple functions, such as cardiac glycosides, ginsenosides, etc.
Acids: including organic acids such as citric acid, lactic acid, etc., have the function of regulating intestinal microbiota.
Polyphenols: They have biological activities such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, such as tea polyphenols and anthocyanins.
Polysaccharides: have the effects of lowering serum cholesterol, anti-cancer and anti-cancer, regulating immunity, etc., such as Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides, shiitake mushroom polysaccharides, etc.
Terpenoids: They have a special aroma and volatility, such as the main components in peppermint oil being terpenoids.
Flavonoids: have biological activities such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, such as propolis and soy isoflavones.
Alkaloids: They are important active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, with various biological activities such as berberine and berberine.
(3) Classified by product form
Plant oils: such as olive oil, tea oil, etc., have a special aroma and nutritional value.
Extract: A concentrated form of plant extract, usually in the form of a paste or semi-solid.
Powdered: A powdery plant extract made through processes such as drying and crushing. which is convenient for storage and use.
Lens: Certain plant extracts can crystallize into a lens under specific conditions, such as certain alkaloids.
(4) Classified by purpose
Natural pigment products: Colorants used in food, cosmetics and other fields, such as curcumin, carotenoids, etc.
Chinese herbal extract products: Extracts used in the fields of traditional Chinese medicine preparations, health products, etc., such as ginseng extract, astragalus extract, etc.
Extract products: Plant extracts with specific biological activities, such as Ginkgo biloba leaf extract, green tea extract, etc.
Concentrated products: High concentration plant extracts used in the preparation of various formulations or as raw materials.
3. Extraction methods of plant extracts
There are various methods for extracting plant extracts, and the following are several commonly used extraction methods:
(1) Solvent extraction method
The solvent extraction method is to extract effective ingredients from solid raw materials using solvents, and the solvents used must be miscible with the extracted solutes. After crushing the plant raw materials, place them in a suitable container and add several times the amount of solvent. Extraction can be carried out using methods such as soaking, percolation, decoction, reflux, and continuous extraction. During the solvent extraction process, the concentration of the solvent, solid-liquid ratio, extraction temperature, and extraction time directly affect the extraction rate of the active ingredients.
(2) Ultrasonic extraction method
Ultrasonic extraction utilizes the strong vibration and cavitation effects generated by ultrasound to accelerate the release, diffusion, and dissolution of substances from plant cells into solvents, while maintaining the structure and biological activity of the extracted substances unchanged. The principle of ultrasonic extraction is mainly based on physical processes, and it is an increasingly important extraction method in recent years. For most components, ultrasonic extraction can greatly shorten the extraction time, consume less solvent, and have a high extraction rate, thus having a high extraction efficiency. In the ultrasonic extraction process, the selection and concentration of solvents, solid-liquid ratio, extraction temperature, and extraction time all affect the extraction rate.
(3) Supercritical fluid extraction method
Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a relatively new extraction and separation technology that typically uses CO2 as the extractant. The principle is to utilize the unique solubility of supercritical fluids and the sensitivity of substances' solubility in supercritical fluids to changes in pressure and temperature. By increasing temperature and decreasing pressure (or both), substances dissolved in supercritical fluids can be separated and purified, achieving the goal of separation and purification. This method has both distillation and extraction functions, and the active ingredients are not easily deactivated, resulting in high product quality. Extraction and separation can be completed simultaneously.
(4) Microwave assisted extraction method
Microwave assisted extraction (MAE) is a new technology that utilizes microwave energy to improve extraction efficiency. Plant samples absorb a large amount of energy in the microwave field, while the surrounding solvents absorb less, resulting in thermal stress inside the cells, causing them to rupture. The substances inside the cells directly come into contact with the relatively cold extraction solvent, thereby accelerating the transfer of the target product from the inside of the cells to the extraction solvent and enhancing the extraction process. Microwave assisted extraction method has become a powerful tool for extracting natural plant active ingredients due to its fast extraction speed and good extract quality. However, the penetration depth of microwaves is limited, and it is required that the processed material has good water absorption and the solvent substance has polarity.
(5) Enzyme extraction method
The cell wall of natural plants is composed of cellulose, and the active ingredients of plants are often encapsulated within the cell wall. Enzyme extraction method is a method that uses cellulases, pectinases, proteases, etc. (mainly cellulases) to destroy the cell wall of plants, in order to promote the maximum dissolution and separation of plant active ingredients. In the enzymatic extraction process, the selection of enzymes, enzyme concentration, pH value, enzymatic hydrolysis temperature, and enzymatic hydrolysis time all affect the extraction rate of plant extracts.
4. The benefits of green and organic plant extracts for product production
(1) Improve product quality
Green organic plant extracts are usually derived from natural plants and do not contain chemically synthesized components, making them an ideal choice for improving product quality. In industries such as food and cosmetics, the use of green and organic plant extracts can enhance the natural properties of products and meet consumers' needs for health, safety, and environmental protection.
(2) Enhance product efficacy
Functional enhancement: Plant extracts are rich in various active ingredients, such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, alkaloids, etc., which have various biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, etc. In food, these active ingredients can enhance the health benefits of food, such as antioxidant and anti-aging properties. In cosmetics, they can exert moisturizing, soothing, acne removing, anti-aging and other effects.
Customized solutions: Different plant extracts have different biological activities and mechanisms of action, which provides the possibility for customized products. Enterprises can choose suitable plant extracts for formula design based on the needs and product characteristics of target consumers, in order to develop products with unique efficacy.
(3) Improve product safety
Green organic plant extracts usually have low toxicity and high biocompatibility, and are safe and harmless to humans and animals. This helps to reduce the usage of chemical synthetic components in products and minimize potential harm to human health and the environment. In the food industry, the use of plant extracts can reduce the use of food additives and improve food safety. In the cosmetics industry, they can reduce irritation to the skin and lower the risk of allergies.
(4) Promote sustainable development
Green and organic plant extracts come from renewable resources - plants, which help promote sustainable development. By using plant extracts, dependence on fossil resources can be reduced, carbon emissions can be lowered, and the ecological environment can be protected. Meanwhile, the production of plant extracts can also promote the utilization of agricultural waste and improve resource utilization efficiency.
(5) Meet market demand
With the increasing concern of consumers for health, environmental protection, and safety, green and organic plant extracts are becoming more and more popular in the market. The use of these extracts can meet the needs of consumers, enhance brand image, and strengthen market competitiveness.
5. Summary
As a part of the food industry, plant extracts are constantly facing food safety issues. The responsibility of companies in the plant extract industry to provide green and organic food additives is undeniable. Producing pure natural plant extracts to increase the nutrition of food and ensure safe and healthy use for users is our unwavering original intention. I hope we can contribute our modest efforts to global food safety.
