EXANDAS · Exploitation of aromatic plants’ by-products for the development of novel cosmeceuticals and food supplements.

Exploitation of aromatic plants’ by-products for the development of novel cosmeceuticals and food supplements.

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). The project on 29/2/2020 was integrated and according to DOA it has achieved its objectives with relatively minor deviations. More specifically according to its objectives: - Novel approaches have been tested and 12 protocols have been created for the development of extracts and enriched fractions. - Isolation and structure elucidation of more than 90 pure compounds have been achieved with the use of advanced techniques. - Biological assays have been performed concerning the antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-whitening, antiaging, anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts and pure compounds. - Formulation of final products has already been achieved for two finished new products. - The researchers gained great transfer of knowledge through their secondments. - Strong synergies have been created inside the consortium that will continue even after the end of the project, proving that EXANDAS is a great example of a RISE project! The project objectives managed to be achieved within the time and resources that were available for the project. All the deliverables and milestones have been delivered although there was a delay due to the continuously progress of the project. The deviations from the work plan, the justification and the corrective actions were described in the first periodic report.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз