Essential Oils: Herb Cultivation, Trade and Essential Oil Crops
Volatile Oil Crops
Who Will Find This Book Essential? This highly information technical handbook will be a valuable resource to all those involved worldwide, in the development, cultivation and marketing of volatile oil crops. This is the EO Bible for individuals serious about Volatile Oils from Crops to Consumers.
The Back Cover Volatile (essential) oil crops yield a wide range of products - fresh and dried herbs, oils and oil components and various oleoresins. Changing lifestyles in the developed countries have led to the dramatic increase in demand for these products, particularly over the last decade. more varied use has been made of oils and herbs in cooking, and oil components are now being regarded as safe alternatives to synthetic food additives and crop protection substances. The surge in demand for these product has encouraged a number of temperate and mediterranean countries to evaluate a range of volatile oil-bearing species as alternative crops. This has resulted in a rapid expansion in the scientific and technical literature on culinary and medicinal herbs. Volatile Oil Crops, edited by Robert Hay and Peter Waterman, draws much of this literature together for the first time. It reviews the basic botany, physiology and bio chemistry of the major species and then analyses the genetics of oil composition. The effects of oils on a wide range of organisms are discussed and the book surveys the biotechnological methods which can be employed in the laboratory production of oils. It concludes with a full analysis of the world trade in the product of volatile oils.
Excerpt: Introduction This book is about temperate and mediterranean crop species which are grown for the volatile oils contained in their leaves, stems and reproductive structures. As explained in Chapter 2. most belong to three large plant families, the Labiatae, the Umbelliferae and the Compositae, and they include many familiar culinary, medicinal and perfumery herbs, such as parsley, mint, thyme, chamormile and lavender. The traditional terms 'essential oil' and 'essential oil crop' still persist even through the 'essence' of the plant, which is referred to, is a poorly defined concept of medieval pharmacy (Guenther 1949). The Authors Robert Hay is Director of the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, Edinburgh, and Peter waterman is Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements List of contributors 1. INTRODUCTION 2. BOTANY
3. Physiology
4. The chemistry of volatile oils
5. Genetics
6 Biological activity of volatile oils
7. Biotechnology of aromatic and medicinal plants
8. Commercial aspects
Appendix: Commentary on the British Pharmacopoeia Monograph on Peppermint Oil Botanical Species Index Chemical Index
Volatile Oil Crops
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