Plant Extract Concentration & Drying Patents: Leaders, Trends 2026
- No single filer dominates. the leader holds 120 records and the ranked field's top 5 combined account for just 9.9% of all 4,994 records in scope.
- Filing activity has cooled from its 2023 peak. 2021's 156 filings fell to 107 by 2024, a 31% decline over that three-year span.
- Medicinal preparations dominate the claim space. A61K covers 39.1% of records, while drying-specific class F26B sits at just 6.4%, well behind the formulation classes that surround it.
Filing growth compares 2021 (156 records) with 2024 (107) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 4,994 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity at the intersection of extract concentration and spray drying, filtered to records that address practical process problems: thermal degradation, hygroscopicity, carrier selection, outlet temperature control, residual moisture and powder flowability. It spans 4,994 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026, drawn from filings across pharmaceutical, food and industrial chemistry applicants rather than a single vertical.
The scope sits closer to process engineering than to any single end product. A record claiming a carrier system for a nutraceutical spray-dried powder and a record claiming outlet-temperature control for a pharmaceutical intermediate can both appear here, which is why the technology composition below spreads across medicinal, food and separation-process classes rather than concentrating in one.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 4,994 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 154 in 2017 to a peak of 187 in 2023, then eased to 107 by 2024 — a 31% drop from the 2021 level of 156. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent years understate real activity rather than showing a genuine slowdown.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
A61K (medicinal preparations) leads at 39.1% of the 4,994 records, with B01J (chemical/physical processes) at 16.4% and A23L (foods) at 15.6% close behind. F26B, the subclass most directly about drying mechanics, covers only 6.4% of records — most of the claim activity sits in the formulation and process classes that surround the drying step rather than in drying equipment itself. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares sum to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 4,994 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Concentration and Drying of Plant Extracts with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about concentration and drying of plant extracts and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
Methods and systems for spray drying temperature sensitive products (US20240181412A1)
Systems and methods are provided for vacuum spray drying. The method estimates an outlet temperature to achieve a minimum drying rate at atmospheric pressure for a selected liquid feed and liquid-to-gas ratio, calculates a predicted dryer pressure at which that minimum drying rate is reached at a reduced outlet temperature, and spray dries the feed at that pressure and reduced temperature — with the pressure approximation accounting for droplet solidification.Filed by Seran Bioscience, LLC; published 2024-06-06.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4986286A | Tobacco treatment process | 830 |
| 2 | US6395300B1 | Porous drug matrices and methods of manufacture thereof | 664 |
| 3 | US6200949B1 | Process for forming solid phase controllably releasable fragrance-containing consumable articles | 593 |
| 4 | US5435325A | Process for providing tobacco extracts using a solvent in a supercritical state | 585 |
| 5 | US6932983B1 | Porous drug matrices and methods of manufacture thereof | 581 |
| 6 | US6639787B2 | Modified oxygen reduced valve metal oxides | 497 |
| 7 | US4935484A | Silicone resin powder and a process for preparing the same | 477 |
| 8 | US7220397B2 | Modified oxygen reduced valve metal oxides | 463 |
| 9 | US6582728B1 | Spray drying of macromolecules to produce inhaleable dry powders | 435 |
| 10 | US3971852A | Process of encapsulating an oil and product produced thereby | 405 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the filing and citation data are read together.
The top of the field is thin
The leading assignee holds 120 records and fifth place holds 73, but the combined top 5 still account for only 9.9% of the 4,994 records in scope. Even the top 10 combined reach just 15.0%. This is a field with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants rather than a small number of firms controlling the claim space.
Filing volume has pulled back from its peak
Activity peaked at 187 filings in 2023, but the cleaner year-over-year comparison — 156 in 2021 down to 107 in 2024 — shows a 31% contraction over three years. Several of the higher-ranked assignees show flat or declining recent-year filing counts, consistent with a field that expanded quickly and has since consolidated its claims.
Drying mechanics are underrepresented relative to formulation
A61K, the medicinal-preparations class, touches 39.1% of records, while F26B — drying equipment and process control specifically — appears in only 6.4%. Most patent activity is being claimed as formulation or separation-process innovation, with the drying step itself treated as a supporting element rather than the primary invention.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to concentration and drying of plant extracts, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
No single company controls this landscape. Activity is distributed across pharmaceutical, food-ingredient and specialty-chemical applicants, most of them holding a handful of records rather than a defensible block.
The largest single filer still holds a small share
The top-ranked assignee's 120 records represent a meaningful lead over the field, but against 4,994 total records that is not a controlling position. Freedom-to-operate work in this space needs to check the long tail as carefully as the leader.
Several early leaders have gone quiet
Multiple assignees near the top of the ranking show zero or sharply declining filings in the latest year. That pattern is consistent with either a maturing claim position being defended rather than expanded, or a shift in filing strategy toward continuations rather than new applications.
Joint filing is rare and concentrated
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across the dataset, and the strongest pairings involve a chemicals company working with a university research office, and an inhalation-therapy specialist filing jointly with individual inventors. Co-development is the exception here, not the norm.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Velico Medical, Inc. | 1 | -96% |
| Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Evonik Operations GmbH | 0 | -100% |
| BASF SE | 0 | — |
| Acusphere, Inc. | 0 | — |
| F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG | 0 | — |
| Chr. Hansen HMO GmbH | 0 | — |
| Inhalation Therapeutic Systems | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The ranking and composition data point to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, licensing, or new filing strategy.
Check freedom-to-operate against the long tail, not just the leader
With the top 5 assignees holding only 9.9% of records, a clearance search that stops at the largest filers will miss most of the relevant claim space.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in EurekaTest claim drafts against the drying-specific class
F26B's 6.4% share suggests outlet-temperature and moisture-endpoint control are still lightly claimed relative to the formulation classes around them.
Draft and stress-test claims in EurekaCommon questions
The leading assignee in this dataset holds 120 of the 4,994 records in scope, with the fifth-ranked assignee at 73 and the tenth at 47. Even so, the top 5 combined represent only 9.9% of all records, and the top 10 combined reach 15.0%. This means no single company holds a dominant position; the field is better described as a long tail of moderate filers rather than a market led by one or two firms.
Filings rose to a peak of 187 in 2023, then declined to 107 by 2024, a 31% drop from the 156 filed in 2021. That three-year comparison is the most reliable trend available because 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete — publication typically lags the actual filing date by around 18 months, so the most recent years will fill in with more records over time and should not yet be read as a slowdown.
A61K, the medicinal-preparations class, covers 39.1% of the 4,994 records, making it the single most claimed subclass. B01J (chemical and physical processes) and A23L (foods) follow at 16.4% and 15.6% respectively. Because a single patent record can carry more than one IPC code, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should not be read as a market share breakdown.
Drying-specific process control — covered by IPC class F26B — appears in only 6.4% of records, well below the formulation-heavy classes that surround it. Sub-areas such as outlet-temperature feedback control, carrier selection for hygroscopic actives, and residual-moisture endpoint sensing show relatively light claim density given how central these process problems are to the search criteria. That gap is where new filings face less crowded prior art, though it also means less established claim language to build from.
US20240181412A1, filed by Seran Bioscience and published in June 2024, claims a method for vacuum spray drying that estimates an outlet temperature for a minimum drying rate at atmospheric pressure, then calculates a predicted dryer pressure that allows that same minimum drying rate to be reached at a lower outlet temperature. The claim ties the pressure calculation to an approximation for droplet solidification, which is a specific technical mechanism rather than a broad process claim. Anyone designing a reduced-temperature spray-drying process for temperature-sensitive actives should review this filing's exact pressure-temperature relationship before finalising a process design.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.