Rosemary: Unrevealing an old aromatic crop as a new source of promising functional food additive—A review

Abstract

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is one of the most famous spice plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family as a remarkably beautiful horticultural plant and economically agricultural crop. The essential oil of rosemary has been enthusiastically welcome in the whole world for hundreds of years. Now, it is wildly prevailing as a promising functional food additive for human health. More importantly, due to its significant aroma, food, and nutritional value, rosemary also plays an essential role in the food/feed additive and food packaging industries. Modern industrial development and fundamental scientific research have extensively revealed its unique phytochemical constituents with biologically meaningful activities, which closely related to diverse human health functions. In this review, we provide a comprehensively systematic perspective on rosemary by summarizing the structures of various pharmacological and nutritional components, biologically functional activities and their molecular regulatory networks required in food developments, and the recent advances in their applications in the food industry. Finally, the temporary limitations and future research trends regarding the development of rosemary components are also discussed and prospected. Hence, the review covering the fundamental research advances and developing prospects of rosemary is a desirable demand to facilitate their better understanding, and it will also serve as a reference to provide many insights for the future promotion of the research and development of functional foods related to rosemary.

Antioxidation Activity Enhancement by Intramolecular Hydrogen Bond and Non-Browning Mechanism of Active Ingredients in Rosemary: Carnosic Acid and Carnosol

“…Rosemary is widely used in processed foods and cosmetics due to its low price, safety, easy access, attractive flavor, and various biological functions, including high antioxidant activity. − Very recently, rosemary extract was also reported to be an efficiently natural antibrowning inhibitor in tyrosinase catalyzed oxidation to substitute the chemical agents, which might be dangerous to social healthiness. The antioxidant activity of rosemary extracts is primarily related to two phenolic diterpenes: carnosic acid (CA) and carnosol (CARN) with structures shown in Scheme . , CA and CARN both have a structure consisting of A, B, and C three six-membered rings that contain an abietane with two hydroxyl groups at positions C-1 and C-2 in the C ring.…”