Natural Product Extraction

Natural products are used by food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, so that extraction technologies and potential applications for plant extracts are of interest for many research areas and industrial areas. This book is intended to give a holistic, in-depth view of the techniques available for the extraction of natural products. Besides of conventional techniques, the use of ultrasounds, microwaves, pressurized liquids and supercritical fluids will be discussed in detail. Their fundaments, process parameters and applications will be explored. Examples and case studies will be used to give a balanced outline of recent applications and potential uses of each technique. Furthermore, the most recent trends for the extraction of natural products will also be discussed, including the use of combinatory and hyphenated techniques.