What is a plant stem cell?

A plant stem cell is a cell that is in the first development phase and has not yet started to differentiate. It will produce some actives that are specific to this developmental phase and some that are more general. The scientific name of a plant stem cells is undifferentiated callus cells. 

What is an active substance?

An active substance is a molecule with a biological activity, such as antioxidant or anti-inflammatory. Active substances can be incorporated into creams, liquids or tablets and used to treat specific ailments.

How to ensure high activity and availability of the active components in our extracts?

When you prepare an expresso, you need to grind the beans and infuse the powder to release the flavours and actives. Likewise, in an extract the active components are made available and concentrated during the extraction process. Because of the robust nature of the cell walls and organelles in plant cells, the active components are not always available unless an extraction process is performed. 

What does extract concentration mean?                                                                              

Similar to the fact that an expresso is a concentrated form of coffee, botanical extracts can be more or less concentrated. The concentration for extracts are often presented as mg dry extract/kg extract in carrier , where the carrier can be glycerol or similar. A 10% extract concentration will correspond to 100 mg dry extract/kg extract in carrier, whereas a 0.5% extract will correspond to 5 mg dry extract/kg extract in carrier.

How do we maximise sustainability?           

For us, ensuring sustainability is essential. We actively work with the three pillars of sustainability and are guided by Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)**. We continuously improve and learn by 

• selection of sustainable ingredients, sourcing and suppliers

• optimisation of all assays and processes

• using renewable energy sources

•  performing carbon footprint analysis

• COSMOS certification of in house extracts 

• selecting carbon neutral shipments

• General guidance to SDG1-17 

• In depth work regarding SDG4-Quality Education, 13-Climate Action and 15-Life on Land

** Diesendorf, 2000; Benn et al., 2014;  https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Why are plants so good at producing actives?

Upon a rainy day we are able to go inside for protection. Unlike us plants are not able to move and therefore have to find other ways to respond to environmental changes and stress. Through evolution plants have adapted to produce a wide range of active substances to help cope with stress and disease situations. Some actives have strong health beneficial, anti-inflammatory and regenerative properties, whereas other can have antimicrobial or anticancer properties.

Different plants have evolved to produce different types of actives, where some will be specific to certain species. Furthermore, some of the actives will be produced in specific parts of the plant, such as leaves, flowers or roots.

Why do we standardise our extracts?

For botanical extracts it is important that the composition and activity is consistent. An extract that is standardised to activity will always have the same efficacy from batch to batch, ensuring reproducible results. For extracts that are not standardised to activity, there activity can vary over time. It is therefore important to perform standardisation both to concentration and activity.