Unique approach with quantitative credentials

This technology undoubtedly brings a lot of advantages in terms of safety, quality and sustainability of the active ingredients thus obtained, such as an extraordinary saving of water and land.
However, these unquestionable benefits remain quite vague unless a clear and, most of all, measurable comparison can be done with traditional in-field plant cultivation and extraction. So the right question to ask is how much water and land are saved to produce the same amount of a plant ingredient with these two technologies. It is clear that a quantitative comparison can be achieved only through the identification and measurement of at least one active substance that is present both in the plant and in the cell culture. Sourcing active molecules from plant cell cultures is exactly what IRB has being doing since 2003 thanks to its exclusive HighTech Nature technology. Recently acquired by Croda International Plc, IRB is specialised in the research, development and manufacture of innovative active ingredients of plant origin for cosmetic, pharmaceutical, nutritional and animal health areas. Besides traditional extraction expertise, IRB has optimised an industrial method for in vitro cultures of plant cells in highly controlled conditions, called HighTech Nature, and developed a number of truly innovative products safeguarding the biodiversity still guaranteeing the best standardisation profile and safety available on the market. This is an alternative process to produce food and cosmetic ingredients (e.g. plant extracts), with a number of advantages over open field cultivation of plants including a dramatic saving of natural resources. Echinacoside is the main active substance and marker of extracts, traditionally used as both cosmetic and nutritional ingredients for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune-booster properties. It is not easy to obtain echinacoside by synthesis because of its complex molecular structure and the level in echinacea roots, from which it is generally extracted, is very low, ranging from 1% to 2%. The biotech approach seems to be the most convenient to benefit from the properties of this molecule and IRB has therefore developed a cell line of Echinacea angustifolia optimised to produce high levels of echinacoside. The comparative data with conventional agricultural procedures have shown that the IRB biotech method allows for 99.9% water reduction and soil occupation – which thus remains available for food cultivation, together with an 80% decrease of solvents used to extract echinacoside. All the comparative calculations made are detailed below.
Quantitative environmental credentials: the echinacea case
The production of 1 kg of echinacoside by traditional methods requires the cultivation of Echinacea angustifolia plants for at least three years so that the proper root size and the balsamic period of maturation is reached (see Fig. 2). On average, roughly 1.3 metric tonnes of dry roots are collected by hectare (ha) of cultivated land.1 Each dry root contains on the average 1% of echinacoside, but in some cases can reach up to 2% of echinacoside. Taking into consideration this last overestimated case, provides a yield of 26 kg/ha in three years which means 8.7 kg/ha per year. This provides the final figure of 1,149 m2 of land used for the production of 1 kg of echinacoside. A similar calculation shows that, in the same period of time, the amount of water required for plant growth2 for photosynthesis, biomass, plant evapotranspiration, evaporation and soil percolation provides the amount of 1,379 metric tonnes per kg of echinacoside. Finally, echinacoside needs also to be extracted from the roots and this requires approximately 500 litres of organic solvents to be used. When the HighTech Nature biotech process based on plant cell cultures of Echinacea angustifolia is used to produce 1 kg of echinacoside, the surface required covers only 3 m2 and the amount of water to be used is 1 metric tonne, thus saving resources for primary uses and mainly for food production (see Fig. 2). Finally the amount of solvents employed to extract the compound is 100 litres. The difference involved in the use of natural resources is clear and very significant. The ability to quantify the saving of natural resources can potentially involve also the end consumer that actively enters the virtuous cycle of the eco-sustainability. In fact the amount of water saved per cosmetic product jar or bottle containing a defined amount of a HighTech Nature biotech-made ingredient can be calculated and claimed on the pack. As an example, we have determined that 1 jar of cream containing 0.25% of IRB echinacoside can save 170 litres of water. Thanks to these quantified advantages, HighTech Nature technology won the 2011 Italian Business Awards for the Environment in the category ‘Best process and technology’.
Helping endangered plant species
Of course this technology can be applied also to rare or endangered species, making available powerful plant ingredients for cosmetic use while totally respecting biodiversity. Obtained through HighTech Nature biotechnology from an edelweiss cell line, Leontocell is a high-performing anti-ageing ingredient featuring minimum 0.025% leontopodic acid A. This is one of the natural defensive substances that allow this strictly protected plant, to survive its native harsh environment on the high mountains. In fact, leontopodic acid A is a strong antioxidant phenylpropanoid, three times more efficient than vitamin C, and has been only recently isolated in the plant, because of its very low level in nature. Based on this marker, 1 kg of IRB ingredient is equivalent to 1000 edelweiss flowers, however the plant cell line was generated using just a few leaves so totally respecting biodiversity. The IRB products are now part of the Sederma product portfolio, already widely acknowledged for its peptide anti-ageing ingredients as well as other bioactive molecules.
 References 1 Bomme U, Nast D. Nutrient removal and proper fertilization in field cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, Zeitschrift für Arznei- und Gewürzpflanzen 1998; (3): 82-90. 2 Nebbia G. The cost of goods and services in water, International Water Culture Center, University of Rome; 2004.