Application of plant extracts in domestic and foreign food raw material markets

With the improvement of health awareness, when consumers choose health products, the attributes and social effects of products, natural and sustainable, have gradually become important factors
affecting their choice.
Among the resources currently available to human beings, plants have unique advantages, which not only cater to the personal choices of consumers, but also conform to the trend of
sustainable social development.
Under the dual demand, the upstream and downstream industries of plant development have entered a period
of rapid development.

Plant extracts are products formed by plant-based products that obtain or concentrate one or more active ingredients in plants through physical, chemical and other treatment methods without changing their composition and function
.
Its biggest advantage lies in the enrichment of active ingredients, which is an important intermediate in modern industry, and can be widely used in food, medicine, health food, cosmetics and other fields
.
For plant extracts, the use of plant extracts varies greatly from country to country, and correspondingly different application patterns
have emerged.

The application of domestic food needs to be accelerated

China is a large country of plant raw materials, but the structure is unreasonable, the export volume accounts for more than 80% of the total income of the industry, although the structure has been adjusted in recent years, but the overall industry layout has not changed
.
The dependence on exports has led to the development of the industry being constrained by external markets rather than internal demand
.

Since 2016, affected by the external market, the growth rate of China's plant extract exports has dropped sharply, and the situation has not been reversed
until 2018.
According to statistics, in 2018, China's plant extract exports reached 2.
36 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17.
8%, and the growth rate even exceeded the highest growth rate
in previous years.
This is mainly driven by the growth of food applications, with stevia extract, eucalyptus oil, menthol, licorice extract, marigold extract, bilberry extract, hesperidin, ginkgo juice and extract, rutin and milk thistle extracts being the more popular categories
.

Traditional Chinese medicine is a treasure of China, plant extracts are more widely used under the concept of modern traditional Chinese medicine, and the application in the food field is slightly backward, natural pigments, sweetener-based food additives and functional health food raw materials are the main application types
.

In January 2020, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work on the Management of Substances Traditionally Both Food and Chinese Medicinal Materials for 9 Substances including Codonopsis, which clearly pointed out that in the pilot areas, when Codonopsis, Cistanche (desert), Dendrobium dendrobium, Ganoderma lucidum, Tianma, Eucommia eucommia leaf, dogwood, astragalus and American ginseng are used as food and medicinal substances, their labels, instructions, advertisements, publicity information, etc.
must not contain false content and must not involve disease prevention and treatment functions
。

It is worth mentioning that the above 9 substances are all traditional Chinese medicinal materials recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and at present, 15 provinces across the country have carried out pilot management work
.

A variety of foreign applications are growing rapidly

Different from the domestic market, plant extracts are more abundant in foreign markets, and food, medicine, cosmetics and other fields have made great progress
.
Looking at the global market, nutritional health food has become the largest demand market for plant extracts, accounting for 45% in 2017, and its proportion is further expanding, followed by plant preparations, accounting for 26%, cosmetics accounting for 12%.

As far as nutraceuticals are concerned, North America is the main consumption area of plant extracts, and turmeric, which has attracted much attention, comes from the North American market
.
Goji berries also performed well in North America, with a growth rate of 637% in 2018, and their main function is weight management
.

On the whole, the domestic plant extract market also has great potential
.
With the continuous reform of institutions and regulations, a domestic cycle based on production, research and development, and application will be formed in China, and a development pattern
of domestic and international dual circulation will promote each other.

(Blue edge)

China Food News(November 28, 2022, Version 06)

(Responsible editor: Yang Xiaojing)