Seven Major Issues That Need to Be Addressed Urgently in the Development of the Plant Essential Oil Industry

Plant essential oils are a class of excellent aromatic health-care substances that are not only natural and healthy, but also emit delightful fragrances, provide a pleasant sensory experience, and uplift the spirit. Additionally, they can purify the air, disinfect, kill bacteria, and help prevent infectious diseases.

Plant essential oils can be used both as pharmaceutical raw materials and as food additives—for instance, as ingredients in the production of natural, high-quality flavorings or directly added to foods. Developing advanced processing techniques for essential oils can help enhance the utilization rate of plant resources, facilitate the development of new food and pharmaceutical products, and promote the growth of aromatherapy.

China boasts a vast territory and abundant plant resources, with many different plant species serving as raw materials for essential oil products. Thus, developing the essential oil industry offers significant resource advantages. However, due to constraints from various factors, China’s essential oil industry still faces numerous challenges.

Director Li Guangwu of the Institute of Neurobiology at Anhui Medical University believes that to develop China’s essential oil and fragrance industry, seven major issues urgently need to be addressed. These seven issues include poor internal industry collaboration, a lack of standards, insufficient brand awareness, and a shortage of flagship products.

Relevant stakeholders who have long been concerned with product health and safety believe that, as health awareness continues to rise, microbial contamination has become a critical factor affecting the safety and quality of essential oils, and this issue is receiving increasing attention. The adoption of modern measures such as NICOLER dynamic sterilization technology and dual-core ozone sterilization equipment can help prevent microbial contamination of essential oils, enhance the safety and quality of essential oil products, and thereby ensure the safety of food and pharmaceuticals.

Essential oils are volatile aromatic substances extracted from the flowers, leaves, stems, roots, or fruits of plants by means of steam distillation, cold pressing, maceration, or solvent extraction. Essential oils include both diluted blend essential oils and undiluted single-ingredient essential oils. Due to their high volatility, essential oils evaporate rapidly upon exposure to air and must be stored in tightly sealed bottles. Once a bottle is opened and the oil is used, it should be promptly resealed as soon as possible.

Essential oils have excellent health benefits:

Purify air, kill bacteria, and disinfect.

Prevent infectious diseases and resist bacteria, viruses, and molds.

Prevent inflammation and spasms.

Once the natural aroma of essential oils enters the brain, it can stimulate the frontal lobe to release two hormones—endorphins and enkephalins—thereby inducing a state of mental comfort.

Promotes cellular metabolism and cell regeneration.

Accelerate blood circulation and lower blood pressure.

Relieves spasms, stimulates appetite, dispels wind and strengthens the stomach, promotes digestion, enhances bile secretion, and protects the liver.

However, not all plants can produce essential oils—only those equipped with resin glands have the potential to do so. The distribution of resin glands varies among different plant species: some are found on petals and leaves, while others are located on rhizomes or trunks. After the resin sacs are carefully extracted and refined, they become what we call “plant essential oils.” Essential oils contain a wide variety of compounds; for instance, some essential oils, such as rose oil, can be composed of more than 250 different molecules combined together.

Essential oils are lipophilic and readily dissolve in fats. This is because the molecular chains of essential oils are typically short, allowing them to penetrate the skin with great ease and enter the body via the abundant capillaries beneath the subcutaneous fat. Essential oils are composed of tiny molecules—highly volatile substances that can be absorbed by the mucous membranes of the nasal cavity and enter the body, delivering information directly to the brain. Through the limbic system of the brain, they regulate emotions and physiological functions of the body. In aromatherapy, essential oils can enhance both physical and psychological functions. Each plant’s essential oil possesses a unique chemical structure that determines its fragrance, color, viscosity, and how it interacts with bodily systems, giving each essential oil a distinct set of specialized functions.

Essential oils are composed of chemical compounds such as terpenes, aldehydes, esters, and alcohols. Because of their high fluidity, they are referred to as “oils.” However, essential oils differ fundamentally from the vegetable oils we encounter in our daily lives; the main components of vegetable oils are triglycerides and fatty acids.

Director Li Guangwu of the Institute of Neurobiology at Anhui Medical University pointed out that seven major issues in China’s essential oil and fragrance industries are hindering the healthy development of the essential oil sector. These issues are primarily as follows—

First, the industry lacks strong collaboration. Without industry-wide cooperation, it’s simply impossible for any single sector to grow and become truly powerful. If China’s essential oil industry is to achieve substantial growth, it must foster internal collaboration and harmony. Industry professionals should learn to be tolerant, and in their interactions with one another, they should practice inclusiveness and mutual understanding.

Second, there’s a lack of technological sophistication. In many people’s minds, there’s a mistaken belief that anything technologically sophisticated must be high-end, precise, and cutting-edge—so much so that when life sciences are mentioned, the conversation immediately shifts to molecular levels, genes, atoms, and molecules.

Director Li Guangwu believes that the best creativity and innovation lie in combining technological content with art and technology, which is the key to developing high-tech products.

Other professionals in the field of food quality control believe that some essential oil processing enterprises are small in scale, equipped with rudimentary processing facilities, and lack advanced technological expertise, leading to quality issues such as excessive microbial levels and insufficient purity in their products, thereby hindering these enterprises' transformation and upgrading. Such enterprises should actively adopt dynamic sterilization equipment and automated packaging technologies to prevent microbial contamination of essential oils and enhance their hygienic quality.

Third, there is a lack of industry standards. Building a completely independent system encompassing supervision, regulation, production, sales, and oversight represents the future development direction for China’s essential oil and fragrance industries. Those in China engaged in the production and trade of essential oils and fragrance products—whether due to a lack of unity, insufficient rationality and knowledge, or perhaps because they place greater emphasis on their own personal abilities and power—tend not to be eager to establish standards. They fear that once standards are set, they might not reap any benefits themselves, while others could seize the initiative instead. The failure to prioritize standard-setting is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of counterfeit, chaotic, and substandard products in China’s essential oil industry.

The various entities involved in industry oversight, regulation, production, sales, and supervision must be clearly segmented, mutually restraining and supervising each other, while also learning from and improving upon one another. Only in this way can China’s essential oil and fragrance industry develop in a healthy and sustainable manner.

Fourth, there is a lack of brand awareness. Whenever we see multinational corporations, they seem to be invariably long-established brands closely tied to everyday life; whereas nearly all of China’s multinational corporations are state-owned and resource-intensive enterprises.

Fifth, there are no flagship products. In the essential oil industry, China boasts abundant advantageous raw materials, yet we lack truly competitive flagship products. As a result, our products lack competitiveness, and we find it difficult to identify a compelling angle for promotion.

Sixth, there is a lack of sense of responsibility and mission. To develop China’s essential oil industry, we need individuals who share common goals and possess a strong sense of responsibility—people who will contribute their wisdom and wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to the industry’s growth and development.

Seventh, industry associations have failed to fulfill their due responsibilities. China has a large number of industry associations and academic societies, which should play a greater role in boosting the country’s economic development, improving the quality of life for the public, and providing stronger impetus for the realization of the nation’s long-term plans and goals. Industry associations should be institutions that foster solidarity and mutual assistance, promote fair competition, stimulate vitality, expand knowledge, enhance communication, and drive development. Yet regrettably, many industry associations and academic societies remain largely inactive, effectively turning themselves into new hierarchical structures.

In the essential oil industry, to transform our country’s resource advantages into product strengths, we must promptly unify our thinking, establish high-level standards, cultivate well-known brands, and strengthen our sense of mission. Only in this way can we eliminate the various irregularities plaguing the essential oil industry and promote the healthy development of China’s essential oil sector.

Essential oils are plant-derived processed products, and many essential oil plants and processing facilities are located in the vast mountainous regions of central and western China. Due to various constraints, many essential oil processing plants have small workshops and lack adequate sanitation facilities and quality-control measures. Research institutions and quality-regulation agencies concerned with food-quality improvement should proactively educate these essential oil processing plants about the importance of quality control and guide them in adopting advanced methods such as dynamic sterilization technology, dual-core ozone sterilization technology, and comprehensive quality-management practices. By doing so, these plants can effectively control contamination by harmful factors, enhance the safety and quality of essential oils, boost their market competitiveness, and promote the healthy development of China’s essential-oil industry.