Institut für Züchtungsforschung an gartenbaulichen Kulturen
The growing demand for sustainably produced plant-based pharmaceuticals offers considerable innovation and market potentials. The aim of DiPlanD is to combine the regional expertise in the fields of plant breeding, biotechnology, digital systems for measurement and control, and analysis of active ingredients to establish Nierembergia (N.) repens as a new agricultural plant in the model region of Southern Saxony-Anhalt, in order to use it as a plant source of vitamin D3 and cholesterol for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. The sterols from particularly promising N. repens accessions and cultivars will then be converted into biologically active vegan vitamin D3 and other potentially marketable sterol-based substances using biotechnology-based and digitally controlled technology. DiPlanD will create a new value-added chain from a plant species which is currently being used exclusively as an ornamental plant in the model region of Central Germany, and will create new jobs in the fields of crop production, machine harvesting, processing and production of pharmaceutical applications. The JKI's contribution is to evaluate genetic variability in available material and to clarify important questions of breeding methodology. This serves as a basis for initiating breeding programs for the development of optimized varietal material in the sense of prebreeding.
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
