Highly bioactive saponins from a cell culture approach

Many plants contain compounds called saponins, which get their name from a link to soapiness. These have many applications in food and health care products, and there is an increased awareness of the need to use plant derived materials wherever possible to replace those derived from petrochemicl sources - reducing the exposure of people and the environment to potentially damaging side effects such as exposure to presticide residues. Each plant contains a different, often complex mixture of compounds; this project will exploit the fact that saponins derived from the fruit of common English ivy are chemically a relatively simple mixture that can be transformed into a single building block for many product applications. We have shown that the molecules in ivy fruit have very strong beneficial effects in the control of fungal infections in plants, animals and humans, and in controlling parasites such as those in the dangerous disease, leishmaniasis, which has a foothold in over 80 countries. Although the application levels required for the compounds to be effective are very low, each market is potentially very large, and significant quantities of material would be required for any single product even at a modest market share. Ivy is very slow to fruit, and to justify the investment required to get a major new product to market a guaranteed supply of the raw material is necessary. The aim of this project is to provide an alternative, guaranteed supply by growing the cells in culture, initially in the laboratory, then in a commercial production facility, to provide the required material. This approach has been achieved, on a laboratory scale, for a related plant containing different saponins.