Illuminating Focus on The Food Preservation with Different Essential Oils and Their Effects: A Review

Abstract

Essential oils are becoming highly valued these days because of their practicality, therapeutic efficacy, safety, and food preservation qualities, as well as their overall health benefits. The negative consequences of synthetic preservatives in food, cosmetics, and medications are becoming more widely known. Therapeutic plants are abundant sources of essential oils which are secondary
metabolites and volatile in nature. Plant materials such as fruit peels, bark, seeds, flowers, roots, leaves, and wood are used to make essential oils. Some important examples include cinnamon, eucalyptus, thyme, eucalyptus, oregano, clove, basil, lemon, rosemary, and ginger. They have potent antibacterial and foodpreservation properties. They contain several active compounds, including terpenes, terpenoids, carotenoids, and curcumin. Especially in the sanitary, cosmetic, food, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, essential oils are frequently employed for antiviral, insecticidal, fungicidal, bacterial, antiparasitic, medicinal, or cosmetic uses. Different conventional techniques are employed to extract the oils, including ultrasound- assisted extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, microwave-assisted extraction. Due to their nontoxic properties and numerous health benefits, essential oils as natural preservatives have an advantage over their synthetic counterparts. This reviewfocuses on how essential oils work as food preservatives.