By-Products from Essential Oil Extraction

290 Today, essential oils production has rapidly increased as a consequence of the growing number of consumer’s preferences for healthier foods due their negative perception of synthetic additives in health. For this reason, trends have targeted the use of natural plant extracts as source of food additives. As consequence, enormous quantities of aromatic plants and fruit peels are used in the essential oils production around the world, thereby creating a huge amount of by-products. In some cases, these are disposed to produce compost or as part of livestock feed; however, others are not properly managed that lead to pollution and environmental problems worldwide. In this sense, a more efficient use of these by-products is its use as food additives because of their bioactive properties. This chapter provides an overview of what has been investigated about the by-products of essential oils extraction, from their characterization to its potential use as food additives.