Indonesia is a major source of essential oils for the F&F industry and the world’s major producer of patchouli, nutmeg, clove and its derivatives, and massoia oils. Alongside a review of the key trends in essential oil production and trade the presentation will analyse some of the many micro and macro challenges that the sector faces. Production, dominated by smallholders, faces severe sustainability problems. These include competition from alternative crops affecting land and labour availability; insufficient financial incentives for both growers and distillers; absence of suitable market systems and institutions; all of which encourage a lack of long-term commitment. Macro challenges include climatic variations and environmental challenges (e.g. global warming, tsunamis, active volcanoes, soil erosion); political and economic issues, (e.g. currency fluctuations, corruption); an expanding domestic F&F industry consuming an increasing share of production; alongside geographic, demographic and infrastructural challenges. Despite these many challenges, the presentation ends on a positive note arguing that with encouragement and investment Indonesia will continue not only to supply competitive, good quality, sustainable natural essential oils to the world market but also will provide an expanding source of new value-added innovative F&F ingredients.

In the late 1980s, Indonesia processed and exported over 800 MT of high quality cured vanilla beans. During the last five years the average crop size was less than 150 MT and the quality was mediocre with low vanillin levels. The purpose of this presentation is to understand how such a shift can occur and what can be done practically to bring back Indonesia as a major player on the world stage and eliminate the fluctuations we have witnessed these past years.

Vanilla is one of the key ingredients used within the F&F industry; from oriental fragrances to ice cream flavours – this orchid does not need to be introduced anymore. It has been widely used by the industry, yet the last two decades have produced two crises, the last of which began in 2015. So how can such a popular ingredient be subject to such volatility? The focus of this presentation is therefore trying to identify challenges facing the long-term sustainability of vanilla, the setting being Indonesia where Tripper/Origine has been operating for the last 25 years.

The essential oil compositions from the leaves of citronella plants grown in Indonesia from different sources vary significantly. Oil from citronella leaves of plants grown in four areas in Indonesia were analysed by GC-MS. Thirty-seven constituents in the oil from the four sources were identified. Variability of chemical compositions in the citronella oil was observed. Major components in the oil were citronellal (12.3-46.0%), citronellol (10.2-14.2), and geraniol (15.3-32.3%). Oil from Aceh had the highest citronellal content, and had the least number of chemical constituents compared to the other three oils. Oil from central Java had the lowest citronellal content and contains four constituents that were only present in this oil. There were also three constituents that were only present in oil from Bengkulu. Total monoterpene oxygenated compounds were 78.9% and 76.6%, in essential oil from Aceh and Bengkulu, respectively.

The consistent variation of chemical compositions in essential oil from Indonesian citronella plants should serve as useful information for plant improvement programmes in Indonesia. On the industry side, essential oil from the citronella plant that contains high amounts of monoterpene oxygenated compounds is greatly preferred by F&F companies.

Frank Mara will take us on a historical tour of the discovery and practice of using essential oils in personal care, well-being and flavour from its believed inception through to present day, specifically looking at three distinct pillars of focus:

• Inception
• Distribution
• Validation

These three pillars will go into detail on the systematic change of the essential oil industry, as well as what we think may be in line for the future.

Inception

Frank will dip our toes into the birth of essential oils and their translation from mythical homeopathic and medicinal usages to aromatherapy as we know it today. From before words were written, plants, herbs and roots were used in the form of salves, to soothe, repair and heal mankind. The early civilisations started to record these uses for us, and these remedies have changed only ever so slightly through the past two millennia. What has changed however, and very recently, is that the general perception of society’s acceptance of all things natural are good for you. This has increased the specialised field of homeopathic healers, flavourists, perfumers and physicians to a level of activity that has changed the growing, harvesting and distilling of these essential oils, morphing this once cottage farm industry into a full blown industrial revolution to fulfil the industry’s need.

Distribution

Globalisation has played a significant part in our aromatherapy world. Since the early traders navigated the long and arduous silk route, taking up to two years to bring these exotic spices and herbs to the new world, these vast distances are now covered in just hours. This insatiable desire has not only been spurred on by advances in technology, but the global citizenship brought about by the advancement of intercontinental transportation, international trade, and instantaneous communication has expanded our understanding of our planet, and its abundant indigenous species that delight our senses. Frank will paint a picture of the changes that have happened over a two thousand year period or more, but will distill it down to approximately 20 minutes for the audience.

Validation

With this incredible growth brings greater demands, driven by the competitive edge and consumer’s desire to know: be better, be purer, be ecologically sociable. Mother Nature, sometimes at will with the odd storm or heatwave and human disruption affecting crop cycles as to what can actually be grown naturally, presents its own challenges. Before the dawn of the technological age, using our own human senses as quality assurance systems were far surpassed by even the simple validations of RI, SG, and colour and pale in comparison to the present day. With the advent of the first chromatography experiments in 1903, we now have very sophisticated means at our disposal, combined with our wealth of experience, to determine best quality and best practice.

This comes with a price, and the ever-increasing method detection capabilities challenge the industry to provide a standard natural product. Frank will walk us through this journey in his own inimitable presentation style to share his outlook.

Vietnam is ranked amongst the 16th most biodiverse countries in the world. Its climate and conditions are suitable for the cultivation of a wide range of essential oils. The essential oil industry in Vietnam dates from the 1980s and today has around eight commercial products. This paper will review the entire range, the scale of current production, the marketing and growth patterns of Vietnam essential oils.

• Nikky will give a brief introduction to Vietnam and a SWOT analysis of the essential oil industry. The country suffered major forest destruction as a result of the wars that raged on and off for nearly 50 years; the “slash-and-burn” cultivation practised by some groups; the population growth and economic development. Vietnam essential oil manufacturers are turning barren mountains and once-destroyed forests green with aromatic plants whose sustainable exploitation could improve the locals’ livelihood through supplemental income and employment.
• The three most exported essential oils are basil oil (Ocimum basilicum L.), cassia oil (Cinnamomum cassia) and cajeput oil (Melaleuca cajuputi). Together with what Vietnamese manufacturers are doing to add more value to the raw materials before exporting, essential oils could be further processed or rectified to add value, and a few manufacturers are isolating compounds that are highly valued by a process of fractionation. As a result of fractionation, pure isolates of added value such as cinnamic aldehyde, cinnamyl acetate and coumarin could be produced.
• The five less traded essential oils, including citronella oil Java type, anise leaf oil, camphor oil, litsea cubeba oil and tamanu oil, along with their market expansion potentials.
• Aromatherapy in Vietnam and its demand for foreign essential oils such as peppermint oil, thyme essential, coffee oil, chamomile oil, argan oil, avocado carrier oil, pine oil, rose oil and jasmine oil, mostly from India.
• The outlook for the essential oil industry in Vietnam.

Topics covered include:

• Synthetic menthol used in the global fragrance and flavour industries as well as natural menthol.
• Global production of synthetic menthol threatens to displace India’s position as the world’s largest producer and exporter of natural menthol.
• Synthetic menthol vs natural menthol – the advent of synthetic menthol.
• What is synthetic menthol and the process for making it, in particular the manufacture of crystalline synthetic menthol?
• The rise of synthetic menthol and its affects on natural Mentha oil and on the families and growers of Mentha crops in India.
• Challenges and the feasibility of synthetic menthol production, sustainability and the survival of natural Mentha oil.
• Synthetic menthol and the overall demand and supply.

All of us are probably aware that production of natural menthol has been decreasing day by day as many of the leading industry players doubled their production of synthetic menthol. Synthetic menthol has come on to the market in big volumes along with natural menthol. Mentha oil production in India has declined with lower plantings of the aromatic herb and falling prices in the last two years.

Japanese essential oils are fine and prestigious.

In the past, Japan was a major exporter of essential oils. Since then, the production of essential oils has been in decline. Recent data shows that less than 1% of local natural ingredients contribute to the entire F&F production in Japan.

On the other hand, Japan is as diverse culturally as it is biologically and is considered to be a biodiversity hotspot. Due to its geological and geographical complexity, it is an ideal place for distilling essential oils from aromatic plants.

More than 5,600 species of vascular plants are growing in Japan, and about a third of these are thought to be endemic. Therefore, Japan is the perfect place for producing unique and quality essential oils.

Until recently, yuzu oil was widely known in the international essential oils community, however during 2018, new essential oil from the endemic plant, hinoki (Chamaecyparis obstusa) was revealed for international commerce.

The three oils: hinoki leaf oil, hinoki branch oil, and especially hinoki wood oil are representative of traditional Japanese culture. The timber is known for constructing Japanese temples and luxury housing and hinoki is also famous for Japanese hinoki hot spring bath rituals and their therapeutic effects.

Additional Japanese essential oils are available in small quantities or are still at different development stages and will be introduced to the international market very soon.

Nepal is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, but not much research work has been done on any industrial level, so this presentation will show the market drive of the essential oil industry emerging from South Asia and will show the therapeutic values.

Nepal is a small country, located between two emerging giants of the Asian continent: India and China. However, like the Himalayan range, Nepal’s biodiversity, a mosaic of species, is an unmatched giant in its own right. In coordination with a botanist and a chemist from Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and the Natural Products Group at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, around 100 essential oil samples were collected and further analysed using GC-MS for chemical composition as well as tested for biological activity including cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, brine shrimp lethality, allelopathy, larvicidal, and insecticidal activity.

In addition, separate testing of essential oil components was conducted to determine if any single component was responsible for the biological activity recorded in our samples. The results could not attribute any one compound responsible for the observed activities in the samples and we therefore conclude the activities to be a result of synergistic effect amongst the components in the samples. Aside from biological testing, the result of our systematic and detailed analyses about plant chemical composition has revealed new chemotaxonomic divisions for some of the different species. Plant chemotypes are not only dependent on genetic difference between species but vary among geographical and climatic conditions. This was studied in some cases through comparison of oil compositions of the same species, which were collected from different locations. In this research, out of 100 samples, I am going to present only some commercially important samples such as Acorus calamus, Amomum subulatum, Nardostachys Jatamansi, Artemisia vulgaris, Cinnamomum camphora, Cinnamomum glaucescens, Cinnamomum tamala, Zanthoxylum armatum, Abies alba and Rhododendron anthopogon essential oil compositions and their biological activities.

In conclusion, through international collaboration, this project was undertaken with the sole goal of identifying potential biologically active essential oils in Nepalese plants. However, our efforts have also translated into a wider understanding of chemodiversity and species differentiation. Through our research, we believe that the Himalayan range has the potential to be one of the most important sources for alternate natural medicine.

Undoubtedly China’s aroma chemical industry had gained significant development in the last two decades. It is now playing a very important role for the global F&F industry. But it has been facing challenges over the years too.

This paper will briefly present some main aspects of the state of China’s aroma chemical industry, and give some points about what to expect in the future.

China is a major producer of a large number of aroma chemical products. This paper will list the main products produced in China, such as musks, lactones, PEA, benzyl acetate, MDJ, salicylates, OTBCHA/PTBCHA, heliotropin, ligustral, vanillin, maltols, furanone, eucalyptol, linalool, Iso E Super, dihydromyrcenol, terpineols/pine oils, IBA, sandals, MCK, etc., along with their production volumes and market shares respectively.

The development of China’s aroma chemical industry is supported not only by market growth but also by vast feedstock availabilities in China, and driven by advanced production technologies – both will be shown in this paper.

As we know, extremely strict environmental supervision has been a huge challenge for the chemical industry in China over the past few years. It has had negative impacts on global customers, including delivery failures and panic. This topic cannot be avoided. Is the industry still sustainable in China? This paper will describe and clarify the current situation and how key players in China are working through the challenge.

The conclusion of this presentation will include opportunities, risks and some points with regard to the future of China’s aroma chemicals industry.

• Preface
• Main products and market share of China’s Aroma Chemicals
• Feed stock resources in China
• Technology development of China’s Aroma Chemicals production
• Environmental protection and sustainability
• The impact of Sino-US trade frictions (if time permits)
• Future trends for China’s Aroma Chemicals
• Conclusion

This presentation will discuss thirteen medicinal essential oil plant species found in Australia, and New Zealand (also known as Australasia). They were selected by conducting a literature research review based on the relevant information of their reported biological and aromatherapy potential.

This presentation will also cover aromatherapy terms, how aromatherapy works, and discusses why it is important to differentiate gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Both in vitro and in vivo research studies will be presented that support a number of areas of aromatherapeutic and biological potential of the thirteen specific Australasian essential oils with a primary focus on one of the major current threats to global health – antibiotic resistance. The unnecessary overuse of antibiotics and subsequent multi-drug resistance is widely recognised as a major threat to global health, progress and sustainability.  The World Health Organization (WHO), as early as 2014, declared antimicrobial multi-drug resistance a global crisis. WHO continues to raise awareness that this is one of the world’s most urgent public health problems. This crisis affects all regions of the world and impacts many areas of life.

The Centers for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html) says antibiotic resistance has the potential to affect people at any stage of life, across a number of industries including healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture. Each year in the US, at least two million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and at least 23,000 people die as a result.  Fighting this threat is a public health priority that requires a collaborative global approach across multiple sectors.

Australasian oils offer not only unique and new synergistic constituent profiles and can be used as a potential alternative to antibiotics but when combined with antibiotics offer a new choice for treatment against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Research shows that a number of these essential oils can be active modifying agents for antibiotics. This offers not only new markets for these oils but access to a variety of industry sectors such as veterinary science which has also taken an interest in using essential oils as anthelmintic agents to combat parasites amongst other things.

The presentation will also review new unique applications of essential oil administration such as nanoparticle delivery providing a source of potential new products such as localised topical administration using sterile gauze dressings impregnated with essential oil nanoparticles for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections following surgery.

The essential oils covered include; Australian tea tree oil Melaleuca alternifolia, lemon scented tea tree oil Leptospermum petersonnii, lemon myrtle oil Backhousia citriodora, anise myrtle oil Syzygium anisatum, buddha wood oil Eremophila mitchellii, Queensland sandalwood  Santalum lanceolatum, Australian sandalwood Santalum spicatum, Honey myrtle oil Melaleuca armillaris, manuka oil Leptospermum scoparium, blue cypress oil Callitris intratropica, rosalina oil  Melaleuca ericafolia, kunzea oil Kunzea ambigua,  and eucalyptus oils (E. globulus, E. horistes, E. polybreacta, E. dives, E.citriodora)

Australia has a unique flora, largely of Gondwanan origin, with later influence from the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia.

Many Australian plant species bear essential oils with unique aromas and medicinal properties.

Research into the diverse and abundant oil-bearing plants began in earnest from the late 1800s and continues today. The Australian industry flourished in the early 1900s but later declined, seeing a significant resurgence at the end of the 20th century until the present. A number of Australian native plant species are currently in significant production, but many others remain and are yet to be explored and developed.

Revered for thousands of years for its wellbeing properties, decades of poaching and adulteration left Indian sandalwood (Santalum album) on the brink of extinction in the wild. Today Australia is home to more than 12,000 hectares of Santalum album plantations – a parasitic oil-bearing tree with a rotation period of more than a decade.

Andrew Brown will explain the evolution of this pioneering industry from seed selection and host trees, to the challenges of oil yields and composition. Finally, he will explore the new challenges and opportunities that future harvests pose, creating new possibilities in product development to treat skin conditions, support the mind and body, and enhance flavours and fragrance.

Andrew will create a sensory experience for attendees to illustrate the technical achievement of Australia’s Santalum album industry – a significant and emerging part of “Naturals in Asia”.

To do this, he will use a combination of slides (a mix of data-driven and pictorial explanations) and video, as well as distributing smelling strips of oil products at different stages of production, highlighting the complexities of this process.

Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils (DSO) is a novel 50:50 partnership between Indigenous Native Title Holders and WA Sandalwood Plantations (WASP) producing Australian sandalwood oil (Santalum spicatum) for export to the global luxury perfume market. DSO’s main initiative is to reinvigorate and rebuild the reputation of spicatum by pioneering a unique standard of oil drawn from traditional Indigenous harvested desert sandalwood and strategically blended with renewable plantation timber to create a superior and sustainable Australian sandalwood oil product.

DSO has pioneered a unique standard of spicatum oil based on a novel supply chain and merger of two polar opposite resources; Indigenous wildwood from desert reserves under the custodianship of the Kutkububba Aboriginal Community (KAC); and plantation timber from an emerging biomass with +13,000 hectares of sustainable PEFC/AFS Certified forests managed by WASP. This uniquely blended product is consistent with superior odour and chemistry never before seen in the sandalwood industry and provides socio-­economic independence for Indigenous communities.

DSO redefines how society can sustainably engage with our central desert communities offering a best practice approach to a natural ingredient supply chain encouraging responsible sourcing.

Kutkububba Aboriginal Community (KAC): An Indigenous Case Study.

Established in 1977, this is the longest continuous Indigenous sandalwood business in the world. Threatened by Government Policy and industry indifference, this project has maintained its momentum and in February 2019 tabled to the WA Government the first sandalwood management plan undertaken in Australia since 1991. With a unique environmental approach, KAC is fusing ancient dead sandalwood from the forest floor with the emerging lactonic plantation timbers in Australia to create unique and superior essential oils that are world best practice in terms of ethical and environmental standards.

The management plan has been undertaken on 337,655 hectares that is now being cross referenced against the 67,000 square kilometre total land mass of this Indigenous Land Claim and will be compiled with other adjoining desert nations’ sandalwood forests to provide the world’s most comprehensive audit of these vast desert sandalwood forests.

Sandalwood has been a major ingredient used in the F&F industry and traditionally sourced from India (1990s). In recent times, Indigenous sandalwood from Australia and New Caledonia replaced this (2000–2017). Plantations of Santalum album and Santalum spicatum in Australia will dominate the future world supply of sandalwood.

The DSO supply chain and business model is progressing the development of essential oils around sustainable and ethical sourcing. As the first company to build Indigenous equity in the sandalwood industry, DSO invites leaders in the global luxury sector to promote the vast and pristine Dutjahn (sandalwood) forests on central desert Indigenous lands. The result is significant for building global consumer awareness and sharing the journey of Indigenous Native Title Holders in obtaining fair and equal rights to the sandalwood resource.

This case study presents how Indigenous people are navigating their way through complex government and industry barriers to a fair and equitable position to have a sustainable future.