Unravelling scientific research towards the green extraction of phenolic compounds from leaves: a bibliometric analysis

Phenolic compounds (PCs) have been finding increasing applications in functional foods, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals due to their nutritional and antioxidant properties. Considering the drawbacks of conventional extraction methods, there is an ongoing challenge for researchers to develop green extractions (GE) of PCs in a sustainable and eco-friendly way. A bibliometric study is a valuable tool to provide quantitative information for evaluating the scientific research activity based on the available published scientific literature. This bibliometric study aims for the first time to unravel the scientific exploration towards the GE of phenolics from plant by-products, that is, leaves by focussing on scientific publications collected through the Web of Science database. Consequently, insights into the evaluation of publication trends, authors, countries, organisations, keywords, journals, publishers and citations in support of GE were established. The critical evaluation of the results showed an increase in research, during the last decade, on GE of PCs from leaves. The study also revealed Europe as the leader in terms of publications, citations, countries, organisations, as well as authors contributing to this research topic. Following the analysis, directions for future research have also been suggested.