PLANT ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: A RESOURCE TO BE OPTIMIZED
Our raw materials: not only natural qualities
Over the centuries, plants have been the main source of medicinal ingredients for humans, providing valuable biologically active substances. Up to now, many plant species have been used, and plant active ingredients are increasingly used not only in the pharmaceutical sector but also in many others.
Nevertheless, safety standards and the availability and purity of plant active ingredients, as required by the very nature of the production process – not so different to the one that has been used since the origins of pharmacology are still jeopardized by a number of, often unpredictable, critical variables. These are sometimes harmful and can only be partly controlled, as they are implicit in the nature of the process itself.
This condition challenges the expertise of producers and distributors while exposing people’s wellbeing and health to potential risks: a paradox still partly unsolved, but by no means unsolvable.
The traditional method: the problems
Safety: the presence of pollutants, such as heavy metals, pesticides, dioxins and aflatoxins in the environment strongly undermines the safety and quality of active ingredients. The incorrect identification of plants, environmental contamination and adulteration are widely examined problems.
Availability: the availability of plants depends on uncontrollable factors
- geographical and climatic restrictions
- the safeguarding of protected species
- growing times (balsamic period)
- the decay of active ingredients during the plant storage phase
- difficulty in extracting the active ingredient and consequent wide use of solvents with a high environmental impact
According to some experts, hundreds of medicinal plants risk extinction due to indiscriminate collection and deforestation.
Purity: environmental and technological variables are an important barrier to guaranteeing purity and a standard end product. In fact, the profile and concentration of secondary metabolites produced by plants largely depends on environmental conditions and growth (biotic and abiotic factors), which are intrinsically variable.
The limited existing solutions
1. Intensifying organic cultivation and increasing random checks during the different processing stages: this measure does not ensure the complete absence of pollutants.
2. An increasing demand for raw materials determines the implementation of traditional cultivation and extraction methods, and traditional extraction methods, causing over-exploitation of land and widespread use of solvents. Despite a focus on improvement, current production processes are characterized by low product yeld, yet high consumption and CO2 production.
3. The most productive companies can guarantee acceptable standards only by applying strict protocols for cultivation and extraction, which are not always economically sustainable. It is impossible, however, to fully control environmental conditions.
The ideal active ingredient:
- Free from any type of pollutant
- Unlimited availability, planned and adaptable according to demand
- Guaranteed high titre
