Development of Plant Extracts with Natural Attraction

With the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of health awareness, people are paying more and more attention to the green safety and functional health of medicines and foods. Natural and healthy plant extract products are welcomed and praised by more and more consumers. The scale continues to expand. By 2013, the global sales of plant extracts had exceeded 54 billion U.S. dollars and still maintained a rapid growth rate. Driven by favorable factors such as the support of national industrial policies, the continuous release of market demand, and the gradual regulation of the industry, the industry prospects for plant extracts are very promising. As a plant extract supplier, Kindarco has made great progress in the field of plant extracts.

1. Overview of plant extracts

Plant extracts, with plants as raw materials, are made by obtaining and concentrating one or more of the effective ingredients in the plant without changing the structure of the effective ingredients to get the resulting product according to the needs of the extracted products, through processes of physical and chemical extraction and separation. According to different ingredients, plant extracts can be divided into glycosides, acids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, terpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc.; according to different product properties, they can be divided into vegetable oils, extracts, powders, and crystalline lenses.

Plant extracts are rich and diverse. At present, there are more than 300 kinds that are used in industrial extraction. It is a very important intermediate product with a wide range of applications. It can be used as raw materials for medicines, as well as health products, nutritional supplements, and food additives, cosmetics and other industries. For instance, some kinds of citrus aurantium extract powder can be added to food to make favor better.

2. Development history of plant extract industry

In the early 1980s, developed countries such as Europe and the United States, which had basically completed industrialization, set off a trend of returning to nature. People's attention on and rejection of chemical synthetic products with side effects gradually increased, and their favor and admiration for natural and safe plant extracts were getting higher, so the industry should rise in response. In 1994, the United States promulgated the "Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act", which officially recognized the acceptance of plant extracts as a food supplement, and the industry of green plants extracts developed rapidly.

China has a long history of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), and medical personnel have attached great importance to the analysis of plant properties and medicinal properties since ancient times. By the 1970s, some domestic pharmaceutical factories began to use mechanical equipment to extract plant ingredients, but this was only used as a production link in pharmaceutical manufacturing and did not develop into an independent industry. After the mid-1990s, as the degree of opening up to the outside world deepened, foreign trade began to flourish, and the plant extract industry, which was less restricted by policies, began to develop.

Since the 21st century, the plant extract industry has entered a golden age. First of all, the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of health awareness have driven people's strong demand for buying plant extract products; Secondly, the industry has benefited from more advanced plant extraction technologies (such as the new applications of enzymatic extraction, ultrasonic extraction, supercritical extraction, microwave extraction and membrane separation technology), which have greatly improved production efficiency.