Aromatic Plants

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EXTRACTION OF AROMATIC COMPOUNDS

Depending upon their chemical nature, aromatic compounds are extracted by steam distillation, fractionation, rectification, cold fat extraction (enfluerage) or solvent extraction. Aromatic compounds are rather unstable. Differences in the number of compounds and/or their quantities have been reported between intact and picked flowers of Jasminum grandiflorum and Nelumbo nucifera (Mookherjee et al., 1993). The quality and quantity of the aromatic compounds that can be extracted from a sample is a sensitive aspect that depends upon the species, variety, locality, time and method of collection, method of extraction, storage, etc., making quality control a very intricate issue.

ESSENTIAL OIL INDUSTRY

Essential oil industry seems to have originated in the East, and was well established even before the 4th century BCE, in Egypt, Iran and India. Heredotus (484-425 BCE) recorded trade in distilled turpentine between Greece and the orient (Mabey, 1988). Essential oils became quite common in the European countries by the middle ages, with juniper, rosemary, lavender and turpentine being the common merchandise. Developements in chemistry revolutionised the essential oil industry through the introduction of refined methods of extraction, fractionation, purification and even chemical modification. Totally synthetic versions, like that of the clove oil, also are on the market.

ECONOMIC USES OF AROMATIC COMPOUNDS

Aromatic compounds are used in a variety of situations, the most important of them being as perfumes, deodorants, toilet preparations, flavouring food and beverage products, medicine, laboratory reagents, solvents, insecticides, and additives in a number of industrial products.

USE OF AROMATIC PLANTS IN MEDICINE

Almost every Appendix in this book includes some aromatic species, which show that aromatic plants have very diverse therapeutic effects, all of which may not be directly related to their aromatic constituents. More significantly, aromatic species are antimicrobials, astringents, analgesics, decongestants, digestives, and stimulants of the central nervous system. Aromatherapy, as already detailed, is the most direct application of aromatic plants in medicine.

Aromatic plants have certainly attracted the attention of the scientists and the Government. The CSIR Laboratories dealing with both medicinal and aromatic plants, and the CSIR publications of abstracts on these groups of plants is an indiction of this. The industry is also well aware of their importance. Nevertheless, only a few well known and commercially important species corner all the attention. Information on the botany, chemistry and applications of aromatic plants is spread far and wide in a diverse variety of publications. There is an urgent need to compile a database containing detailed and consolidated information on the aromatic plants occurring in India. We have initiated this work and the tentative list of 543 species of aromatic plants that will be the basis of the database is given in Appendix 23.