ABSTRACT
The necessity for reducing society’s dependence on imported crude oil has directed researchers’ attention to the use of vegetable biomass not only as a source of energy but also as ne chemicals. Indeed, some easily isolable biomass components could be used as chemical reagents in the synthesis of novel products with a higher added value, replacing existing chemicals based on petroleum sources. Among these vegetable components, the essential oils of certain tropical aromatic plants are attractive materials to be utilized as chemical agents. Being phenolic compounds in nature with additional functional groups, these compounds appear as attractive renewable precursors in the construction of new and diverse molecules. Moreover, diversied chemical functionalities of such phenolics allow the generation of a variety of products with novel structural and skeletal diversity with a higher added value, for example, pharmacological, biological, and physical properties.
