Utilization of Microwaves in Applied Natural Product Chemistry

Volatiles are extracted from aromatic plants for commercial products of premium quality and price. Why not synthesize these? Are we quite ready for such tasks? The answer is a yes and no. Some of these are amenable to chemical synthesis but others are not. Those that are, still have a cost associated that outweigh the commercial utility. We still primarily depend on conventional extraction methods for volume production of volatiles, may it be for flavors, fragrances or medicinal aroma. We have been conducting our investigations in natural products extraction, with the sole intention of developing a simple, green and functioning processing solution using microwave technology. We share our review of current literature in this area and give an overview of our novel processing equipment.