Valagro becomes the first user of the Extract Library
Valagro is an Italian company that develops biostimulants and fertilisers to enhance the yield/quality, nutrient efficiency and stress tolerance of crops. In the Extract Library, Valagro aims to discover new biostimulants.
The Extract Library is an initiative of the Centre of Expertise for Plant Compounds and is intended to help industry in the development of new commercial applications and products using plant compounds. The Centre of Expertise is thus supporting businesses in the cosmetic, agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. The Extract Library includes extracts from an extremely wide biodiversity of crops. Together, the extracts contain several hundreds of thousands of different plant compounds.
Impact for the Dutch Horticultural industry
The library will greatly benefit the agricultural and horticultural sectors. It will enable them to collaborate closely in the development of products based on the bioactive substances discovered. Currently, the Centre of Expertise is in talks with a range of companies worldwide interested in using the library to identify desired bioactive molecules and natural raw materials for their products.
“We are delighted to welcome Valagro as the library's first client,” says Jan Pen, manager of the Extract Library. “We expect the partnership with Valagro to bring benefits for both parties.”
“This is a major milestone for the Centre of Expertise for Plant Compounds,” says Dr Leon Mur, its managing director. “We have been working on the development of this platform for several years, as well as investing in the international business network. It is great to see this strategy now paying dividends, with an impact on the Dutch horticultural sector, generating innovative products and new business from plant compounds. We expect to be able to announce other new partners before the end of the year.”
Extract selection simplified
“Valagro has always invested in research and development in order to devise innovative solutions for the challenges of making agriculture sustainable,” says Giovanni Povero, Plant Physiologist at Valagro. “This is why we created GeaPower, a broad platform for investigating and developing effective biostimulant products. One of the main GeaPower pillars is on selecting the best active ingredients, such as plant extracts. The Extract Library will enable us to research large numbers of extracts simultaneously, discovering new extracts that are suitable for use in innovative biostimulants.”
For more information:
plantenstoffen.nl