VivaCell Ltd. has broad experience and expertise in phytodrug research with a variety of natural products used as phytodrugs or nutraceuticals for several indications (e.g. St. John’s wort (Hypericum), Devils Claw (Harpagophytum), fever few (Tanacetum), butterbur (Petasites), mistletoe (Viscum) and many others).
Our natural product research involves:
- Rapid screening of plant extracts and fractions
- Identification of phytodrug targets
- Identification of molecular mechanisms affected by phytodrugs
- Fractionation
- Phytochemistry
- Identification and purification of active principles
- Functional studies for standardization and quality procedures for extracts, where the function is not related to the lead compounds
In vitro models:
In vitro testing methods for phytodrugs and nutraceuticals include all primary cells and cell lines described on the following pages. They will be chosen depending on the indication of the phytodrugs/plant extract and to the needs of the customers in individual and flexible protocols.
Parameters:
Parameters will be chosen according to the needs of the customers and the indication of the phytodrug/nutraceutical.
Functional studies of natural products:
Standardisation of anthroposophic and phytotherapeutic extracts has been bedevilled by major problems such as variable composition of the extract, lack of knowledge of active component(s) and mechanism of action, to cite a few.
Particularly with regard to herbal extracts information’s about the precise nature of the effective components are still lacking. In view of standardization procedures for extracts additional information on the “efficacy-level” would be desirable.
Therefore we offer functional studies with micro-arrays to test the efficacy on the gene-expression level. In addition, detection of specific and defined parameters can be carried out with different techniques (e.g. ELISA, Multiplex-PCR).