Diana Plant Sciences debuts cocoa ingredient derived from plant stem cells

Cocovanol, from Diana Plant Sciences.

Diana Plant Sciences, based in Portland, OR, has brought to market what it says is the first nutraceutical ingredient produced completely in a bioreactor via plant stem cell technology.

The ingredient, a cocoa powder containing a high level of flavanols the company has branded as Cocovanol, debuted recently at the Natural Products Expo West trade show in Anaheim, CA. The powder is indistinguishable at a glance from standard cocoa powder, save for its lighter color. Except in this case, a process of controlled growth within a bioreactornot photosynthesisis the prime input that resulted in the ingredient.

So far as company officials are aware, it is the first nutraceutical ingredient to come to market via the technology, said Marc Philouze, president of Diana Plant Sciences.

There are quite a number of companies that advertise plant stem technology, mostly in the cosmetic industry. Whats really valuable is we dont emphasize so much the stem cells, we care more about the active metabolites within the cells that provide the benefits, Philouze told NutraIngredients-USA.

Diana first identifies a substance of interest, and then drills down to find out which cells within the plant are producing the compounds shown by the scientific literature to have health benefits. They can then culture just the wheat so to speakthose specific cells (in the case of Cocovanol, the cells within the cacao beans that synthesize the flavanols) without having to harvest the chaff, namely all of the thousands of other types of cells within the cacao bean or any other plant of interest that produce other compounds incidental to the health benefit associated with that ingredient.

Non GMO approach

Its a reductionist approach, Philouze acknowledges, one that has led the technology to be applied in the research and manufacture of pharmaceuticals. One big difference between Dianas approach and those of the drug researchers, though, is that in the pharmaceutical realm there is no special issue surrounding genetic modification technology to tweak the stem cells to deliver the desired compounds. Diana explicitly rejects that approach for the production of its nutracuetical ingredients.

This is a non GMO process. We dont intervene at that level, Philouze said.

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Diana Plant Sciences debuts cocoa ingredient derived from plant stem cells