From Plant to Product: Process-Centric Advances in Essential Oils—Extraction, Modeling, Standardization, and Use
A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Separation Processes".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 223
Special Issue Editors
Interests: phytochemistry; essential oils; natural products isolation and structural elucidation; medicinal and aromatic plants; chemotaxonomy
Interests: natural product chemistry; synthesis, structural elucidation; NMR spectroscopy; bioactive compounds structure–activity relationships
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Processes focuses on process-centric advances across the essential-oil value chain, from sustainable sourcing and green/intensified extraction to quantitative, structure-aware profiling, digital quality control, and translational applications in foods, pharma, cosmetics, agriculture, and biotechnology. We invite contributions that couple innovative unit operations (e.g., hydrodistillation optimization, microwave/ohmic/ultrasound-assisted extraction, supercritical/subcritical fluids, pressurized liquid extraction) with modeling, control, and optimization (DoE, QbD, PAT) to deliver reproducible quality, techno-economic viability, and scale-up readiness.
A core emphasis is analytical and structural rigor. We welcome studies that move beyond “percent lists” toward validated, quantitative, and stereochemically resolved profiles including qNMR, enantioselective/chiral GC, robust retention-index strategies, co-injection with authentic standards (or well-justified synthetic/semisynthetic surrogates), and integrated NMR-MS workflows for structure elucidation (isomerism, conformational dynamics). We also encourage chemometrics and AI (signal deconvolution, RI/RT prediction, class modeling, adulteration/authentication) and digital twins of extraction/processing steps.
Bridging chemistry with application, we especially seek mechanism-aware bioactivity papers (antimicrobial/anti-inflammatory, insecticidal/repellent, neuro/dermato-applications), formulation and delivery (nanoencapsulation, controlled release, stability), and process sustainability (LCA, circular bioeconomy, waste/by-product valorization). By uniting process engineering, analytical chemistry, organic synthesis, and chemical ecology/chemotaxonomy, this Special Issue aims to set best-practice standards for essential-oil research that is reproducible, scalable, and industry-relevant.
Dr. Marko Mladenović
Prof. Dr. Niko Radulović
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- essential oils
- isolation and structural elucidation
- synthetic and semi-synthetic methods
- chemometrics
- chemotaxonomy
- bioactive compounds and biological activity
- medicinal and aromatic plants
- structure–activity relationships (SAR)
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