Analysis, Extraction and Biological Studies
Introduction to analysis, extraction and biological evaluation of natural products.
We conduct the following analysis for the natural products industry:
We undertake phytochemical analysis and herbal analysis of novel foods nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and medicinal plants. We also undertake alkaloid extraction or the extraction of alkaloids, detection and isolation of alkaloids and the general analysis of alkaloids.
We also undertake the analysis of the following phytochemical classes:
analysis of steroids
analysis of sterols
analysis of saponins including ruscogenin
analysis of triterpenoids - such as ganodermic acids
analysis of flavonoids - such as rutin, vitexin etc.,
analysis of flavanoids
analysis of polyphenols - red wine polyphenols
analysis of tannins
analysis of iridoids - such as arcubin
analysis of phytosterols- e.g., stigma sterol, sitosterol
Other more specialised analysis includes CPFA detection via GC-MS or the Halphen test and identification and adulteration of medicinal plants using botanical microscopy. We also undertake pesticide analysis of herbs and herbal medicines, novel foods, natural cosmetic products and nutricosmetic products. Care is need here to detect components that maybe obscured by the complex cocktail of phytochemicals found in these sort of products.
We also undertake spoilage and stability studies of natural based products including fingerprinting, oxidation and exposure to UV light, microbiological load, and aflatoxin and ochratoxin content.
Analysis
One of the difficulties that pervades new product development in this industry is knowing how much analytical data one needs for "in house" quality control and also how this relates to the safety, efficacy and finally regulatory approval.
By thinking through carefully what you are trying to achieve, it is possible to develop good quality analytical data even on a small budget. We understand the regulatory approval process with natural products and have had great success in achieving this for our clients. Some companies have limited budgets and we can tailor you needs accordingly. We can undertake arrange of analysis such as tlc, hplc, gc-ms, etc. By working with you we can make sure that your products come up to standards that will enable your product to be sold in the EU or the USA. We can help you establish quality control systems, produce specification sheets and certificate of analysis. It is easy to spend a fortune on analysis and sometimes this is necessary, for example the so called “new chemical entity” for a pharmaceutical product where the analysis and quality control costs runs into millions of dollars. However if the botanical in question has a monograph, has a history of use then the requirements are often a lot less erroneous. It also depends on the reason why the analysis is being undertaken in the first place. A manufacturer of a botanical extract may be producing analytical data for the production of specification sheets to attract “end product” marketing companies to incorporate the product into new formulations. In these cases, often the marketing company themselves may decide to have a more thorough analysis to be undertaken, especially if the regulatory requirements are special to that particular territory.
We can help you get the best quality analysis, without compromising the product in question.
Please contact us for further details.
Extraction
The extraction of natural products is one the most important areas with regard to the efficacy of a particular herbal product. Some solvents are used because there is a tradition of use. Typically these involve aqueous extraction, or water alcohol mixtures, which is especially true for tinctures that are used by medical herbalists and sold in health food shops. New developments include the development of standardised extracts. This is truly one of the leading innovations in the natural products area. A controversial area, it is an expensive and time consuming process to develop new standardised extracts. What happens time and time again, is that a company will spend thousands of dollars developing an extract to one particular active only to discover that an academic somewhere in the world has found another important active, through some biological evaluation work and then the race is on to produce this as well!
We help companies develop standardised extracts, but we also recognise the important of the activity of the whole extract where clusters of compounds work in synergy together to produce the desired effect. We have understood this from the very beginning and Dr Wilkinson gave a keynote lecture in the USA as early as 1997 on the importance of whole spectrum extracts and how to evaluate them biologically to an international audience of pharmacognosists and industry leaders.
Our academic research in this area continues and we would welcome enquiries from companies to help them develop full spectrum extracts. Newer exciting developments are the use of novel solvent systems such as Super Critical Carbon Dioxide Extraction, where the production of extracts is highly efficient, and environmentally friendly. We can also fractionate plant extracts and isolate and characterize purified natural products.
