Rosemary essential oil: Chemical and biological properties, with emphasis on its delivery systems for food preservation

The food industry has long been committed to finding alternatives of chemical preservatives to retain the freshness of food. However, the use of chemical preservatives has raised concerns on potential toxicity, chemical contamination and other limitations. As a result, finding alternatives to these potentially harmful chemicals that can be used as food preservatives is of the utmost importance. Rosemary essential oil (REO) is one such natural food preservative and exhibits strong antibacterial and antioxidant properties. The present study briefly discusses the chemical and biological characterization of REO including the extraction method, chemical composition and its antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. And this review focued on the various delivery systems of REO in food preservation applications, such as nano emulsions (NEs), solid particle encapsulation (SPE), and biodegradable food packaging film/coatings (BFPF/BFPC), and displayed their extraction methods, chemical compositions, antimicrobial properties, and applications. It was concluded that REO is being utilized for food preservation through various delivery forms such as NEs, SPE, and BFPF, in addition to direct application for food preservation. The ability of encapsulated REO to preserve fresh foods such as meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables, has been shown to be significantly superior to that of conventional methods.