The NATRISE® Platform
ABR uses its own industrial-scale production platform, the NATRISE® Platform, to produce secondary metabolites from plant cell suspension cultures.
The plant kingdom is very rich in plant species and varieties. Each is the result of evolution over millions of years and possesses the characteristic of producing distinctive, biologically active secondary metabolites in response to specific environmental stimuli. For this reason, many plants have been used as medicines and remedies for human health since ancient times.
Plant organisms consist of cells capable of synthesising specific active botanical ingredients that have a beneficial effect on human health. Traditionally, these active botanical ingredients are obtained through their extraction from whole plants, or parts of plants, grown outdoors or in greenhouses. These production methods, in most cases, are influenced by climatic variations and adverse factors such as attacks on plants by insects, parasites, viruses and bacteria, which lead to very significant fluctuations in the quality and quantity of the botanical assets harvested.
In addition, the low concentration of active botanical ingredients intrinsically contained in some plants necessitates large-scale cultivation that massively exploits natural resources, causing serious damage to natural ecosystems (pollution of water and air by the use of pesticides and fertilisers, soil impoverishment, loss of biodiversity, etc.).
Production capacity
The NATRISE® biotechnology is able to generate plant cell lines from a tiny portion of a single plant (leaf, root, etc.), making it unnecessary to use the whole plant or to exploit entire cultivable areas for food crops.
The entire production process takes place in a controlled environment and the cell lines, amplified in bioreactors, can regenerate indefinitely and produce large quantities of cell mass.
Plant cell suspension culture using NATRISE® produces high-quality, standardised, high-yield active botanical ingredients.
The NATRISE® production process safeguards natural resources: compared to traditional field cultivation methods, it excludes the use of pesticides and fertilisers and saves large volumes of water, cultivated area and energy.
NATRISE® Platform, the environmentally friendly biotech
Sustainable biotechnology
Saving natural resources
Plant cell cultures
Made in Italy
Fertiliser-free
Pesticide-free
Microplastic-free
Preservative-free
Production of secondary metabolites through the NATRISE® Platform
Plant cell suspension cultures for the production of secondary metabolites.
In the NATRISE® Platform, plant cell cultures are originated from the creation of a cell callus, i.e. the spontaneous formation that develops in nature when the original plant tissue (leaf, root, etc.) is subjected to stress and begins, under appropriate conditions, a process of tissue repair.
The NATRISE® Platform, which uses only small living parts of the plant, without eradicating it, allows the de-differentiation of adult cells and the recovery of their ability to multiply, using the same conditions and substances involved in the natural process. Once the calluses have been created and the cell lines are stable, the cells are transferred from solid to liquid medium. Cell cultures are then screened under optimised conditions (using HPLC, LC-MS and NMR analysis) in order to characterise the metabolic profile of the most active and efficient colonies for the production of active botanical ingredients.
The final scale-up consists of transferring the selected cell cultures in liquid medium to large-volume industrial fermenters to allow the formation of biomass from which the molecules of interest can be extracted. After rigorous analysis to ensure their quality, they are then titrated according to regulatory approvals and finally made available on the market.
The production process, step-by-step
Industrial scale-up, flexibility and production standardisation.
Identification of a plant recognised for its content of effective active molecules.
Explantation of plant tissue, induction of cell proliferation and induction of calluses.
Selection of the most productive cell callus and adaptation to suspension culture.
Cell culture amplification in sterile, large-capacity bioreactors (scale-up).
Extraction in aqueous solution of the botanical active from the cell biomass. Purification and freeze-drying of the botanical active.
Final product titrated in the specific active botanical ingredient.
Vacuum-packed for a shelf life of over 3 years.
Why choose the NATRISE® Platform
Comparison with agricultural cultivation and traditional methods of extracting active botanical ingredients.
RESOURCES
- High sustainability and savings in water resources, cultivated area and energy.
- Safeguarding plant species, including rare or protected ones.
- Large biobank of cell lines available.
- Know-how and professionalism.
- GMO-free: the plant cells used by NATRISE® biotechnology are totally natural and not genetically modified. The production of secondary metabolites is stimulated by natural biotic and abiotic factors (e.g. light/darkness, temperature).
PROCESS
- Sterile and controlled environment.
- Full supply chain traceability.
- Industrial scale-up, flexibility and production standardisation.
- Absence of pesticides, fertilisers, environmental pollutants, substances or products hazardous to human health.
ACTIVE BOTANICAL INGREDIENTS
- High titre product of the active botanical ingredient of interest.
- High-quality active botanical ingredients.
- Extraction of extremely pure, contaminant-free active botanical ingredients.
- Yield independent of seasonality, climatic changes and the plant’s vegetative cycle.
- Stable, standardised and repeatable active botanical ingredient.
Why the NATRISE® Platform is sustainable biotech
We meet the needs of today's customers while preserving natural resources for tomorrow's generations.
Soil savings
Compared to field crops, the NATRISE® Platform uses only 0.0015% soil. The soil can thus be used for food crops.
Water saving
Compared to field crops, NATRISE® uses only 1% water, thus removing less water from the water supply.
Pesticide- and phytopharmaceutical-free
The NATRISE® biotech process takes place in a controlled, sterile environment.
Fertiliser-free
Fertilisers used in the field tend to percolate, and sometimes contaminate, the underlying soil layers. The NATRISE® Platform needs only water and a few salts and sugars, so pollution from leaching fertilisers into the soil is reduced to zero.
