Essential Oils

Abstract

Essential Oils have added a lot of value to the growth of flavor and fragrance industry as well as agriculture. The economy of the country being agriculture based, its farmers were engaged in traditional agriculture growing mostly food crops, which has caused them low returns. Imperative need has, therefore, been felt of growing essential oil bearing crops for a long time past, under diversified farming programme which have proved to be cash crops offering much better returns to the farmers. In our country, some 1300 species are known to contain Aromas, but only about 50 of these plants and oils derived from them are in consistent demand in trade & industry. The process of globalization of Fragrance and Flavor industry, which started about a decade before, is now growing rapidly. Essential oils are the backbone of the Fragrance.