What is plant extract

Plant extracts refer to substances that are extracted or processed from plants (all or part of plants) using appropriate solvents or methods, and can be used in the pharmaceutical industry, food industry, health industry, beauty industry, and other industries.

Product definition of plant extracts

Plant extracts use plants as raw materials. According to the needs of the use of the final product extracted, through physical and chemical extraction and separation process, one or more effective ingredients in the plant are obtained and concentrated without changing the effective ingredients. Structured products. According to the different components of the extracted plant, glycosides, acids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, terpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc. are formed; according to different properties, they can be divided into vegetable oils, extracts, powders, lenses, etc.

Market supply and demand of plant extracts

There are many different varieties of plant extracts. The supply and demand of these products are constantly changing with the year and various market factors, and the imbalance between supply and demand occurs from time to time.

1. Product supply impact As the raw materials of the plant extract industry are agricultural and forestry products, they are susceptible to weather, plant diseases and insect pests, planting area and other factors. The purchase price and quantity of raw materials in different years will fluctuate, and the price of raw materials will fluctuate the price of natural plant extract products. 1. The output will change to a certain extent, and market supply and demand imbalance will occur.

2 Market demand impact

Most production companies have limited knowledge of overseas market demand, and may lack scientific and long-term accurate judgment on market demand. When the market demand for a certain product is good, there will be a market imbalance in short supply, but with the spread of market information, a large number of enterprises will swarm and repeat production, resulting in product supply exceeding demand.

Ingredients of plant extracts

1. Alkaloids

It is a complex nitrogen-containing organic compound with special physiological activity and medical effects. For example, ephedra contains ephedrine for the treatment of asthma, and scopolamine contains antispasmodic and analgesic effects.

2. Glycosides

Composed of sugar and non-sugar materials. The commonality of glycosides is in the sugar part. Different types of aglycones have different physiological activities and have many functions. For example, digitalis leaves contain cardiac glycosides, and ginseng contains ginsenosides for qi, shengjin and soothe the nerves.

3. Volatile oil

Also known as essential oil, it is an oily liquid with aroma and volatility. It is a mixture of various compounds. It is physiologically active and has many functions in medical treatment, such as cough, asthma, sweating, anti-extension, expectoration, and expelling Wind, analgesic, antibacterial, etc. Among the medicinal plants, the volatile oil content is rich in Platycladus orientalis, Magnolia officinalis, Xinyi, camphor tree, cinnamon Evodia, Angelica dahuricae, Chuanxiong, Angelica, mint and so on.

4. Tannin

A mixture of polyphenols. Exist in a variety of plants, especially in the Salicaceae, Fagaceae, Polygonaceae, Rosaceae, Leguminosae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae plant content. The gall gall medicinal material produced on the medicinal plant salt skin is called gallnut, which contains gallnut tannins, and has the functions of astringent, antidiarrheal and antiperspirant.

5. Other ingredients

Such as sugars, amino acids, proteins, enzymes, organic acids, oils, waxes, resins, pigments, inorganic substances, etc., each have special physiological functions, many of which are important clinical drugs.

Based on the legislative categories and concepts of various countries and their usage, the concept of plant extracts can be accepted and recognized by various countries, and it is also a common expression used to spread herbal medicines in various countries. The export value of Chinese plant extracts exceeded the export value of Chinese patent medicines as early as 1999. In the European and American countries, plant extracts and their products (plant medicines or food supplements) have a broad market prospect, and have developed into an emerging industry with annual sales of nearly 8 billion US dollars.

The plant extracts in China are generally intermediate products, which are currently widely used, mainly used as raw materials or auxiliary materials for medicines, health foods, tobacco, cosmetics, etc. There are also many types of raw material plants used for extraction. At present, there are more than 300 plant varieties that have been extracted industrially.