Sustainable Practices: Preserving Nature’s Bounty for Herbal Extracts
The World Health Organization reports that 60% of the global and 80% of developing nation populations rely heavily on herbal medication for primary healthcare and wellness1.
According to Precedence Research, the US herbal extract market, estimated at USD 9.79 billion in 2023, is forecast to exceed USD 18.67 billion by 2033 – a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.66%. Dried herbs represent the largest market share, with food and beverages dominating. At the same time, essential oils show the fastest expansion rate within the personal care and cosmetics categories2.
This growth is thanks to availability and accessibility, traditional preferences, and the strongly emerging consumer demand for more natural, less processed, and cleaner food, beverage, self-care, and wellness options. Users also favor improved environmental responsibility and sustainability and better-respected human and animal rights.
In response, healthcare authorities increasingly focus on the quality, effectiveness, safety, standardization, and preservation of herb-based products.
What Are Herbal Extracts?
Herbal extracts are concentrated substances – powders, liquids, resins, or oils – derived from plant flowers, stems, roots, seeds, and leaves. They are typically used therapeutically, medicinally, or as a flavoring or coloring ingredient. Consumption includes various formats, such as powders, capsules, tinctures, lotions and creams.
Common herbal ingredients include dried whole ginger, turmeric, chili, extracts such as ashwagandha, curcumin, capsaicin, and oleoresins like black pepper, paprika, ginger, onion, and garlic. Herbal essential oils encompass peppermint, eucalyptus, patchouli, tea tree, vetiver, and Davana oil.
How Are Herbal Extracts Produced?
Traditional extraction turns solids into solubles by adding water or alcohol to the active ingredients, which are then blended or separated. Processes include infusions involving heating and separation; tinctures produced at room temperature and then separated; distillates produced from vapor; and extracts – concentrated infusions.
While effective, conventional extraction techniques can harm the environment due to solvent use. They may also degrade valuable source compounds during heating. Approaches can also be wasteful, retaining less than optimal amounts of the source’s active components. Instead, newer, more advanced thinking and technologies offer increased efficiency, eco-responsibility, and sustainability.
Sustainable and Ethical Biotech
Process and extraction innovation drive more sustainable, eco-friendly, and increasingly, better quality and more cost-effective extracts. These sometimes revolutionary approaches also help optimally harness nutrients, flavor, and functional elements while limiting or removing off-notes and contaminants.
New technologies cover extraction, fractionation and separation, and drying:
- Extraction
New technologies are applied to traditional solvent extraction to improve efficiency and enhance quality. The focus is on chemical or physical ingredient differences such as electrical charge, polarity, and molecular size. Approaches include freeze-thaw-assisted extraction, which can increase the degree of cell membrane permeabilization. Combined with pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE), they are among the greenest and cleanest options.
Other methods are intensification assisted by microwaves and ultrasonication, facilitating more efficient cell wall disruption, and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)—safe, clean, and cost-effective with dramatically reduced clean-up required. - Fractionation and Separation
This set of approaches yields higher purity and includes liquid-liquid extraction, centrifuge, distillation, membrane filtration, and chromatographic techniques. - Drying
Providing a longer shelf life requires occasionally drying aqueous extracts in solid form. When done efficiently, the drying process can yield optimized active ingredient retention, boost microbial safety, and produce a superior quality product.
Advanced technology processes include infrared, microwave vacuum, and freeze-drying. Microwave techniques are more economical and faster than free drying, with infrared requiring less energy and time while increasing phenolic compound and antioxidant levels.
Aligning with thought leadership and embracing technological advances yields elevated quality, saves money and time, respecting natural resources and consumer preferences. Likewise, is sourcing superior, EU-certified flavor and odor extracts from Advanced Biotech.
Harness the Benefits of More Sustainable Practices With Advanced Biotech
Browse Advanced Biotech’s comprehensive range of sustainably and ethically sourced and produced ingredients, including essential oils, absolutes, oleoresins, powders, and more. Contact us today to place your order for herbal or herbaceous extracts to preserve nature’s herbal bounty and boost your product and business profile.
1 https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-031-21973-3_10-1
2 https://www.precedenceresearch.com/us-herbal-extract-market