Plant extracts have a long history of being used as drugs or in many other industries like food industry. Alfa Chemistry, located in USA, is committed to proving the best quality chemicals and recently announced to add more plant extracts for both research and industrial use.

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 has multiple functions like anti-irritant, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, anti-infective, sterilization, wetting, etc. Thus, they can be used in a variety of areas such as health foods, therapeutic drugs, cosmetics, processing aids, additives, and many more.

“Ever since ancient Egyptian and Roman times, plant extracts have found their application in the treatment of fever and aches. Some of these extracted compounds, such as phenolics and flavonoids, are reported to be effective even in cancer prevention,” says a senior scientist from Alfa Chemistry.

The most widely used extraction techniques include:

Maceration, infusion, percolation, and decoction, soxhlet extraction or hot continuous extraction, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) or sonication extraction, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE), purge and trap, solid phase microextraction, etc.

Classification of Plant Extract based on application areas:

Material of Medical Care

Extracts from medicinal plants have a long tradition as a way of treating many ailments and are still used today as alternatives to synthetic drugs. Researchers usually use botanical sources as starting point in the drug development program and there are some advantages.

Material of Cosmetics

Another major application of plant extracts is the cosmetics industry. Growing scientific evidences prove that some plant extracts are active ingredients that can repair and protect human skin. Besides, plant extracts can provide formulators with more choices at the technical level in cosmetics industry and meet the diverse needs of consumers.

Material of Health Food

Plant extracts can also be used in health foods. Health foods have specific functions and are thus suitable for only a specific population. Unlike drugs, they are not intended to treat diseases. 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.

For more information about Alfa Chemistry’s plant extracts, please visit https://www.alfa-chemistry.com/products/plant-extract-144.htm to learn more.

About Alfa Chemistry

As a professional and reliable supplier of building blocks, reagents, catalysts and reference materials, Alfa Chemistry is a preferred choice of partner for many universities, research institutes as well as other organizations. Its broad range of product offerings cover heterocyclic organic compounds, boronic compounds, optoelectronic materials, organic building blocks, fluorinated building blocks, steroidal compounds, precious metal catalyst, material & chemicals, metal organics, nanomaterials, and more.