Advances in the synthesis and applications of raspberry ketone: A review

Abstract Recent advances in the synthesis and applications of raspberry ketone are reviewed in this paper. Different routes to this material including chemical and biotechnological synthetic methods and extraction from natural sources are compared, and the applications of the ketone in flavour and fragrance, pharmaceuticals and in food and tobacco processing are discussed. Synthesis from petrochemical raw materials has the advantages of ready availability of ingredients and well‐understood synthetic steps, but direct synthesis from petrochemicals will eventually be replaced because of low yields and hazardous results to environment. The ketone can be made from natural raw materials, and the methods are promising if their disadvantages such as limited availability and complex, multi‐step reactions and harsh reaction conditions can be overcome. Biotechnological preparation methods have the advantages of reaction specificity, mild reaction conditions, but are limited in applicability because of complications associated with their synthetic and purification procedures at present. With the development of biotechnology, biotechnological preparation methods of the ketone may be the most important route in the future. Direct extraction of the ketone from natural raw materials is possible, but the cost is very high. From the view of syntheses and applications, the research perspectives of raspberry ketone are outlined in the end of this paper, which are the development of green and effective synthetic methods for raspberry ketone from natural raw materials and the preparation and application of raspberry ketone by biotechnological preparation methods.