PLANT EXTRACT
A plant extract is a substance or active substance of a desired property extracted from plant tissue by treatment for a specific purpose. Plant extracts can be used in a variety of areas including health foods, therapeutic drugs, cosmetics, processing aids, additives – chemical alternatives, and so on.
Medical industry: Medicinal plant extracts are currently of considerable importance because of their special attributes as a large source of therapeutic phytochemicals that lead to the development of new drugs. Since phenolic and flavonoid plant extracts have antioxidant activity, it has been reported that most chemicals from plant sources such as phenols and flavonoids have a positive impact on health and cancer prevention. The antioxidant activity of phenolic and flavonoid plays a role in preventing the development of age-related diseases that are particularly caused by oxidative stress.
Cosmetics industry: Plant extracts are attracting increasing interests in the cosmetics industry. There are now growing scientific evidences that plant extracts have a broad and complex arsenal of active ingredients that not only calm or smooth skin, but also repair and protect human skin. In addition, plant extracts may contain compounds having antimicrobial or other beneficial properties that affect the formulation of cosmetics. Plant extracts can provide formulators with more choices at the technical level in cosmetics industry and meet the diverse needs of consumers.
Health food industry: Plant extracts can be used in health foods. Health foods are a specific type of food that has specific functions for the human body, but they are not intended to treat diseases and are suitable for consumption by a specific population. For example, endogenous plant antioxidants, which are extracted from tea, sesame and wild rice, as well as from other plant sources such as rice husks, can inhibit lipid peroxidation and protect the membrane from oxidative damage of membrane function.
References
Azwanida N N. A review on the extraction methods use in medicinal plants, principle, strength and limitation[J]. Med. Aromat. Plants, 2015, 4(3): 3-8.
