Patent analysis of a medicinal plant as a source of natural products and drugs: Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary)

Medicinal plants are widely used worldwide and play an important role in the treatment of human and animal diseases. Most modern drugs are developed from isolated compounds of medicinal plants, based on their ethnopharmacological uses/applications. Among these medicinal plants, Rosmarinus officinalis (R. officinalis) is used in medicine, based on their antibacterial and analgesic activities. It is used as antioxidant, carminative and as analgesic in muscles and joints, as well as to treat minor wounds, rashes, headache, and circulation problems. Commonly known as rosemary, R. officinalis is a perennial shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves, that can grow wild in Mediterranean scrubland and scrub. It is a medicinal and culinary herb, which is able to produce aroma, essential oils and fragrances by extraction from stems, flowers and leaves.

As a source of natural products and for drug development, R. officinalis-based research is developing rapidly through the innovation and improvement of raw materials, formulations, extract preparation process, method for extracting, and production technology, as well as applications. This is evident also from the elevation in the number of patent applications filed each year worldwide in this area of R. officinalis research and development.

This work, in the form of a patent analysis, which is a family of techniques for studying the information present within and attached to patents, describes the state of the art by introducing what has been patented in relation to R. officinalis regarding to extracting methods/process, formulations and applications.