In recent years, with the continuous growth of the wellness, natural beauty, and green food industries, market demand for plant extracts—valued for their naturalness, safety, and efficacy—has steadily expanded. Driven by advancements in bio-extraction technologies and the ongoing refinement of industry standards, China’s plant extract sector has moved beyond traditional, low-efficiency processing models, achieving comprehensive breakthroughs in technological upgrading, product diversification, and application expansion, establishing itself as a core growth engine within the biopharmaceutical and health industries.
Market size continues to expand, with broad applications across multiple sectors
Industry data shows that the global plant extract market reached $18.27 billion in 2025, while China’s domestic market surpassed 34 billion yuan, growing 19.65% year-on-year and maintaining the fastest growth rate globally. Compared to conventional chemically synthesized ingredients, plant extracts—characterized by their green, natural origin, low irritation, and high bioactivity—precisely meet consumers’ current demands for clean labels and natural, healthy products. Application scenarios are continuously expanding, covering dietary supplements, functional beverages, cosmetics and skincare, and biopharmaceuticals. In the first half of this year, the number of newly registered plant-based raw materials in China surged significantly. Specialty plant extracts such as root and stem of mountain magnolia (Firmiana simplex), white thorn fruit, and willow-leaved calicanto have become hotspots in R&D. Thanks to active components like flavonoids, polyphenols, and polysaccharides, they are widely applied in skin repair, antioxidant support, and dietary regulation.
Technological innovation drives quality improvement and efficiency gains
Technological advancement remains the key driver behind industrial transformation. Recently, Chinese enterprises have achieved successive breakthroughs in plant extraction technology. New methods—including enzyme-assisted high-pressure pulse extraction, low-temperature precision separation, and extracellular vesicle extraction—are gradually being implemented at scale, effectively addressing longstanding challenges in traditional extraction processes such as high loss of active compounds, low purity, and poor utilization rates. Some companies are focusing on developing specialty raw materials and mastering deep-processing techniques for underutilized forest resources, extracting high-purity dihydroquercetin from byproducts like pine roots, thereby enabling resource recovery from agricultural and forestry waste and balancing economic returns with ecological benefits. Meanwhile, several listed companies are intensifying their investments in this sector, concentrating on core ingredient patent development to break overseas technological monopolies and accelerate the transition of Chinese plant extracts from low-end raw material exports to high-end functional component supply.
Standardization advances, accelerating industry normalization
As the industry rapidly expands, efforts toward standardization and regulatory development are also progressing. The sector is calling for improved national standards and oversight frameworks for plant extracts, integrating established quality criteria into end-to-end management systems for health foods and cosmetic ingredients. Clear specifications for component content, production processes, and safety testing help ensure product quality from the source. With increasingly robust regulations and rising technical capabilities, China’s plant extract industry is poised to deepen its commitment to natural and healthy solutions, accelerating its evolution toward standardized, high-end, and sustainable development.