ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Chemical Composition of wild Rosmarinus officinalis Essential Oil: Bioactivity Evaluation, and Valorisation Strategies for the Spent Biomass after Essential Oil Extraction
Provisionally accepted
Bruna Laratta1*
Filomena Monica Vella1
Anna Giulia Castaldo2Immacolata Fiume1
Francesco Siano3
Domenico Cautela4- 1Institute of Bioscience and Bioresources, National Research Council (CNR), Napoli, Italy
- 2Politecnico di Milano Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani, Milan, Italy
- 3Istituto di Scienze dell'Alimentazione Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Avellino, Italy
- 4Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, E-Campus Novedrate, Milano, Milano, Italy
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Minimising waste generation is at the heart of sustainable management policies in the agri-food sector, with a focus on the valorisation of by-products. In this scenario, solid residues from the essential oil (EO) industry are a rich source of bioactive phenolic compounds for use in food and pharmaceuticals. This study explores the potential exploitation of essential oil (EO) and the solid residue produced after the distillation of a wild variety of Rosmarinus officinalis. The EO from the leaves was extracted by hydro-distillation and, afterwards, antioxidant activity and sun protection factor were evaluated, as well the chemical composition was established using gas chromatography. The results of this characterisation reveal a new EO chemotype with the major component being α-pinene. The bioactive compounds in rosemary residue after essential oil (EO) distillation were explored. The presence of polyphenols, ortho-diphenols and flavonoids was determined, followed by antioxidant characterisation. The results were analysed using the statistical tool 'Response Surface Methodology' to identify the optimal parameters for maximising the yield of bioactive compounds (time, temperature and solvent concentration) and, so that, the best value of this rosemary by-product could be ascertained. The recovery of terpenes and polyphenols has been demonstrated in this wild variety of R. officinalis for the first time, which allows the full utilisation of its by-products and may help to make the EO industry more sustainable. Furthermore, these research outcomes provide confirmation of the worth of this aromatic plant for application in food, beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and medicine.
Keywords: Rosemary, Rosmarinus prostratus, Essential oil, Waste valorisation, antioxidant activity, Response Surface Methodology
Received: 01 Aug 2025; Accepted: 07 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Laratta, Vella, Giulia Castaldo, Fiume, Siano and Cautela. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bruna Laratta, bruna.laratta@cnr.it
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.