Plant biotechnology for pharma, cosmetics and food applications

Modern plant biotechnology offers advantages to develop new type of ingredients for industrial applications in an environmental friendly and sustainable way. We have developed industrial-scale production systems for Nordic berry species including their cell cultures with consistent quality and defined chemical composition. Through our proprietary bioprocessing technologies combined with solvent-free extraction, we can enrich and modify natural antimicrobials from the berries and their by-products to obtain multifunctional ingredients with new or improved bioactivities. Ellagitannins, dimeric sanguiin H-6 and sanguiin H-10 isomers, efficiently inhibit the growth of skin pathogens by blocking cell-to-cell signalling in a bacterial community without affecting the beneficial bacteria. In vivo findings show that ellagitannins are very effective against MRSA bacteria thus opening entirely new avenues in wound healing and fighting against antibiotic resistance [1].
Plant cells have conventionally been used to produce single metabolites e.g., pharmaceuticals. However, their use as a whole cell biomass for plant-based food production is a new approach. Our recent investigations concerning the nutritional composition of cultured plant cells revealed very favourable contents of dietary fibre, starch, sugars as well as good quality lipids besides a surprisingly high content of proteins. The cell biomass showed balanced profiles of nutritionally essential amino acids exceeding contents of soy protein isolates and most importantly exhibited differential digestibility, a basis for efficient absorption, depending on species and processing [2]. As a case study, we showed how cultured cells from coffee plant can be processed to obtain
coffee [3] and discussed future perspectives of cellular agriculture.