Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EXANDAS (Exploitation of aromatic plants’ by-products for the development of novel cosmeceuticals and food supplements.)

Teaser

Southeastern Europe is a region of rich biodiversity; several hundreds of different medicinal and aromatic plant species are collected and processed in the region and exported to other EU countries. Many of the collected wild or cultivated plants are subjected to steam...

Summary

Southeastern Europe is a region of rich biodiversity; several hundreds of different medicinal and aromatic plant species are collected and processed in the region and exported to other EU countries. Many of the collected wild or cultivated plants are subjected to steam distillation and/or hydro-distillation to obtain essential oils, creating a significant amount of aqueous water (hydrolat) and waste herbal residue. The plant material residue is considered waste and is disposed in landfills. These by-products represent a vast reservoir of valuable compounds, the exact composition of those wastes is not always known. Innovative approaches to extract, purify and process such substances are needed.

The main scientific and technological objectives of EXANDAS are:
- Application of emerging extraction and purification techniques for the development of novel natural products (extracts & enriched fractions), the optimization of their recovery and isolation of promising substances
- Unequivocal structure elucidation of chemical constituents through the utilization of advanced hyphenated techniques
- Development of validated analytical methodologies for the targeted quantitative analysis of specific bioactive ingredients in final products
- Assessment of the various biological activities of the extracts and pure compounds in order to reveal their potential activity.
- Scaling up of the extraction and purification processes and development of new products based on emerging technologies
- Formulation of final products and elaboration of stability and safety assessment
- Elaboration of a feasibility study for the development of several new commercial products (extracts, enriched fractions, pure compounds, cosmeceuticals and food supplements).

Work performed

During the first period of the project the responsible beneficiaries provided the consortium with the necessary by products and raw materials: flowering aerial parts of several aromatic plants such as Rosa damascene, Lavandula vera, Melissa Officinalis, Geranium macrorrhizum, Matricaria Camomilla, Ocimum basilicum and Sideritis scardica. Floral water, waste water and petals among others were included in the byproducts. The beneficiary CMGA supplied the partners with the mastic gum by-product named colophony and by-products of the mastic gum hydrodistillation (hydrosol, waste water and solid residue). Collection of stems and leaves from the species Pistacia lentiscus and Pistacia terebinthus was also performed. The collected by-products were transferred to the responsible participants in order to be investigated. A great number of extracts and enriched fractions were prepared using environmentally friendly technologies and extraction protocols were developed for each collected raw material. Depending on the raw material, “green” techniques such as Supercritical Fluid extraction, Microwave Assisted Solvent Extraction, Subcritical water extraction and highly cross-linked adsorptive resins were used. Additionally, the optimal extraction conditions for most of the raw material were also determined. However the optimization of the extraction protocols will be finalised to combination with the results of the chemical profiling and the biological evaluation of the WP3. All the preparations resulted in the first year of the project were forwarded for the initial assessment of their chemical content. Total Phenolic Content (TPC), Total Flavonoids Content (TFC) and HPTLC analysis using both general and specific reagents for the visualization of the chromatograms were performed. The results of that initial chemical profiling revealed the most promising extracts. These extracts were submitted to Centrifugal Partition Chromatography technology in order for the main components to be isolated. For the identification of the volatile components an analytical procedure on GC-MS was developed. The qualitative characterization of the extracts was also performed with analytical processes based on HPTLC and LC-MS. All extracts were forwarded for their biological evaluation. Antioxidant activities of extracts and enriched fractions were investigated using DPPH antioxidant assay and ABTS to measure the radical scavenging capacities of the samples. The extracts were also evaluated for their skin-whitening activity using an established tyrosinase assay, using L-DOPA as substrate and a high throughput 96 well microplate method. The evaluation of the anti-inflammatory activity, the cytotoxicity and their ability to inhibit enzymes involved in the degradation of elastin, collagen and hyaluronic acid was performed. Concerning the WP5 from the very beginning of the project, dissemination actions took place from most of the participants. Brief presentations of the project and its goals were performed on scientific conferences (especially from academic partners) and international exhibitions with important audience (mostly by the SMEs participants). Publication of dissemination articles and newsletters, in scientific and non-scientific magazines was promoted. The web-site is open to public and its target is to act as a communication tool among partners and as a dissemination tool for all meetings reports, which will be also distributed to the Commission. Moreover a distinctive recognizable logo was created to be used in all the project’s dissemination activities (posters, deliverables etc.). Concerning workshops, the 1st Workshop was held on the 22nd of September 2017, in Athens, Greece. Concerning the WP6 and the project administration, all the duties and responsibilities were fulfilled, ensuring the smooth coordination and collaboration between the participants, as well as the communication with EU. No problems have been faced in the collaborations b

Final results

For the implementation of EXANDAS project specific aromatic and medicinal plants were selected. The selection was based on their economical importance for southern European countries, as well as on their therapeutic/bioactivity potential. More specifically by-products and wastes from the industrial exploitation of mastic gum, rose, mountain tea, lavender, geranium and sweet basil were selected.

Overall EXANDAS implementation will incorporate state of the art technologies for detailed chemical analysis of by-products obtained during the aforementioned aromatic/medicinal plants processing. EXANDAS will introduce eco-friendly technologies for the production of natural “green” extracts, fraction and pure compounds. All products will be evaluated extensively for their biological activity and safety using in vitro and cell-based assays in a successive and complementary manner. Most interesting ingredients will be forwarded to scale up production, formulation and elaboration of a feasibility study for their commercial exploitation as novel active ingredients in cosmeceuticals and food supplements

Website & more info

More info: http://www.exandas-project.eu.