The development of natural plant flavors mainly involves three core links: raw material collection, extraction technology, and product application. The current development status and technological trends are as follows:

1、 Raw material collection and resource distribution

Natural plant flavors come from the flowers, leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and other parts of plants, and are widely distributed worldwide.

2、 Extraction technology

1) Steam distillation method

The most commonly used technique is to evaporate essential oils carried by plant vapors through heating, and then condense and separate them. It is divided into water distillation, water distillation, and water vapor distillation, which are suitable for most plant raw materials, but high boiling point components are prone to loss.

2) Immersion method

Organic solvents (such as ethanol) are used for extraction at low temperatures, which can retain non-volatile components and are suitable for raw materials such as flowers and resins. Common methods include fixed extraction and stirring extraction.

3) Squeezing method: Directly extract essential oils from plant tissues, suitable for oily raw materials such as citrus;

Supercritical extraction method: using high-pressure and low-temperature extraction, with high separation efficiency and complete retention of components, but high equipment cost;

Microwave radiation-induced extraction method: accelerates solvent evaporation through microwave heating, is easy to operate, and has low energy consumption.

3、 Product form and purpose

Extracts can be made into essential oils, extracts, tinctures, etc. Essential oil is the main product, which is volatile and aromatic, and is widely used in food, cosmetics, medicine and other fields (for example, rose essential oil is used in perfume, and mint essential oil is used in toothpaste).

4、 Development Trends

Technical optimization: Improve extraction efficiency and purity through biological reaction engineering, microwave technology, etc;

Resource development: Strengthen the protection and sustainable cultivation of endangered plants, such as the large-scale development of Yunnan vanilla industry;

Function expansion: Develop high value-added products with antibacterial, antioxidant and other biological activities.

Summary: The development of natural plant flavors mainly relies on traditional distillation methods, combined with modern extraction techniques to improve yield and quality, while emphasizing sustainable resource utilization and product diversification.