Growing plants......the Biotech way!!!

Producing pure ayurvedic compounds in a flask ........
Shatvari is a plant that is considered highly medicinal in ayurvedic texts. Its roots produce compounds called saponins which have the medicinal properties. But these are produced only after flowering. And the plant flowers only after 4years. So, nobody wants to grow this plant ....who is going to wait for 4years? So we took a different approach .We established the root callus of this plant in our tissue culture laboratory (we are the first one in the world to have done so, other attempts failed for years). We then made the callus friable and established individual cells in suspension cultures. These cells now grow in suspension and produce pure saponins. No need to grow the plants, no need to wait for 4years for flowering, no need to have a field, no fertilizers, no pesticides. All you need is a small room, a few cheap equipments and you can manufacture the medicinal compunds. Bonus?? You get pure, high value saponins, rather than crude root powder. Neat , isn't it?

What is BIOTECHNOLOGY?

Consciously manipulating and using processes of life for the benefit of mankind is what biotechnology is all about. For example, we can introduce the human insulin into bacteria thereby producing huge quantities of human insulin at a fraction of the cost. This is of great help to diabetics world over who, till some years back, had to purchase cattle insulin which was both costly and less potent. Similarly, we have introduced the Bt gene into cotton making cotton crops less susceptible to pests.
Biotechnology touches virtually all aspects of human life. Through biotechnology we get new and improved medicines at a fraction of the cost, higher quantity of food, improved varieties of food, insect resistant plants, plants making their own fertilizers, fruits that have longer shelf life…. and so on. Gene therapy, which is supposed to be the answer to incurable diseases, is also a variant of biotechnology.
So then, biotechnology is a field that has a say in virtually every field of human endeavor.


When you make an omelet and throw away the eggshell ……

Worldwide millions of eggs are consumed daily and it is a big problem to dispose off the shells. Our aim was only to design a simple method to obtain pure calcium carbonate from the shells. But we woke up to the possibility that the membrane that adheres to the shell can also be exploited for value added products. We have made possible the development of a technique that gives you pure calcium carbonate, and such high value products as collagen, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate. The last three come in a mixture. Currently we are developing methods to separate the three.