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Review
. 2025 May 25;262(1):6.
doi: 10.1007/s00425-025-04724-y.

Unlocking the potential of essential oils in aromatic plants: a guide to recovery, modern innovations, regulation and AI integration

Sneha Nayak  1 , Roopa B Hegde  2 , Abhishek S Rao  3 , Ramaprasad Poojary  4
Affiliations
Review

Unlocking the potential of essential oils in aromatic plants: a guide to recovery, modern innovations, regulation and AI integration

Sneha Nayak et al. Planta. .

Abstract

Essential oils recovered from aromatic plants hold tremendous potential across diverse fields, which include therapeutic, industrial, and technological domains. Integrating advanced recovery techniques, regulatory frameworks, and AI-driven innovations can significantly elevate their sustainable production and application. There is a growing need for essential oils (EOs) due to their therapeutic and aromatic benefits, they have been explored across the globe. This comprehensive guide tries to give a glimpse of the skyrocketing potential of EOs by highlighting the advancements in recovery techniques, modern innovations, regulatory frameworks, and its integration with modern technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). The review highlights the importance of quality control in ensuring purity of EOs, discusses various extraction methods, and explores emerging technologies like supercritical fluid extraction and microwave-assisted extraction for successful and quick recovery of EOs with minimal energy requirements. The guide also delves into modern innovations such as encapsulation techniques and nanoemulsion formulations, expanding the scope of essential oils in industries like cosmetics, personal care, and healthcare sector. Addressing the regulatory aspect, the review emphasizes on the standardized quality testing, labeling, and safety considerations necessary for EOs to reach the market. Further, the paper explores the applications of EOs in business innovations such as preservatives to extend shelf life and aromatherapy for pain reduction. Overall, this guide provides valuable insights into the future of EOs, showcasing the possibilities enabled by advancements in techniques, innovations, regulations, and AI integration, benefiting researchers, industry professionals and public.

Keywords: Aromatherapy; Artificial intelligence; Business innovations; Distillation; Essential oils; Machine learning; Tissue culture.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Papers published on “Essential oils” between 1988 and 2022 (a); and on “Essential oils as therapeutics papers country wise” between 2002 and 2022 (b), as per recent search in Scopus Database (accessed on 27/06/2023)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Papers published on “Essential oil production strategies” between 1980 and 2022 (a); and on “Artificial Intelligence and essential oil” between 1986 and 2022 (b), and country wise documents on “Artificial Intelligence and essential oil” details as per recent search in Scopus Database (accessed on 27/06/2023)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Overview of secondary metabolism in aromatic plants under various biotic and abiotic stress conditions
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Overview of a photosynthesis and enhanced growth and b negative impact of abiotic stress on photosynthetic activity of plants due to restricted stomatal activity
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Roadmap of Essential oil recovery by steam distillation and need for analytical methods for oil quality checks
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Overview of Agrobacterium rhizogenes mediated transformation of plant tissue for hairy root culture development and scale up in bioreactors for EO recovery
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Various types of ML algorithms and popularly used algorithms
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
General flow of ML approach
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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