ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: A NECESSARY CHOICE
Plants have always been a precious source of biologically active substances for pharmaceutical, nutritional and cosmetic use. To this end, many plants have been widely cultivated both in open field and greenhouse. This approach is limiting in case of slow growing plants or for substances present in low levels in plant tissues thus requiring large amounts of natural resources (such as soil and water) and solvents for their extraction and purification. Well aware of these limitations, the FAO since 1994 has indicated plant cell cultures as a valid alternative for the production of these substances of high added value for nutritional use.
IRB, a green biotech company, has dedicated many years of research and has developed a large scale biotechnological production of plant substances with evident advantages for the environment compared with the traditional methods.
In this way HTN biotechnology is able to guarantee:
- no impoverishment of the flora
- negligible soil occupancy: that way soil can be cultivated for food
- drastic reduction of water, solvents, CO2 and no use of pesticides
As an example for the production of one kilogram of echinacoside with the IRB technology only three square meters of surface and one metric ton of water is required compared with more than 1000 square meters of land and of 1300 metric tons of water required by traditional technologies as estimated by specialized studies on this issue; in addition in the extraction procedure five times less amount of solvents are required.
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VV. AA., Agronomical trials on Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida., E.purpurea, ISAFA 2002/1;
G. Nebbia, The cost in water of goods and services, University of Rome, 18-19th January 2004, International Water Culture Center
IRB, the first and only green biotech able to manufacture extracts from plant cell cultures for cosmetic and nutritional applications, supports and strictly applies this concept. It guarantees plant actives of the highest purity, quality and efficacy ensuring at the same time the saving of natural resources.
> SINCE 2003 SUSTAINABLE EFFICACY
