Food technology centre april 2008 newsletter

FOOD TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Innovation for the Food & Bioresource Industries
Prince Edward Island, CANADA
NEWSLETTER
Featured in this issue:
Natural Sources for Modern Pharmaceuticals
By Muhammad Yousaf, PhD, Organic/Purification Chemist – 2008 CIFST/AAFC Conference– Supercritical Fluid Extraction Approximately 63% of all approved small molecule drugs are derived from natural products, or are nature-inspired semisynthetic derivatives of natural products.
– Food Safety Workshops– Bioscience Technology Program Chemical compounds or substances produced from livingorganisms – natural products – often have a biological activitywhich may be useful in pharmaceuticals. These naturalchemical compounds may be extracted from tissues of terrestrial plants, marine organisms or microorganism fermentation broths. A crude extractfrom any one of these sources typically contains novel, structurally-diverse chemicalcompounds. Most biologically-active natural product compounds are secondary metabolites which are The 2008 Canadian Institute of Food
not directly involved in the normal growth, development or reproduction of organisms. The Science and Technology/ Agriculture
function or importance of secondary metabolites to the organism is usually of an ecological and Agri-Food Canada Conference will
nature as they are used as defenses against predators, parasites and diseases. Plants be held in Charlottetown, PE, May 25 - 27.
have always been a rich source of useful drugs (e.g. morphine and quinine). The conference is offering two full days of Clinically useful drugs which have recently been isolated from plants include the programming on a "green" theme and antimalarial agent artemisinin from Artemisia annua, and the anticancer agent paclitaxel of Prince Edward Island CulinaryExperience. See t Microorganisms produce a large variety of antimicrobial agents which have evolved to give their hosts an advantage over their competitors in the microbiological world. Someexamples of antibacterial drugs isolated from microorganisms are cephalosporins,tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, rifamycins, and chloramphenicol. Success Stories
We love to help our clients succeed! A
Marine sources such as coral, sponges, fish, and marine microorganisms have chemicals few of their success stories are available with interesting biological activities. For example, curacin A is obtained from a marine cyanobacterium and shows potent antitumor activity. Animals can sometimes be a source of new drugs. For example, a series of antibioticpeptides were extracted from the skin of the African clawed frog. Venoms and toxins from animals, plants, and microorganisms are extremely potent because they have specific interactions with a macromolecular target in the body and have been used as lead compounds in the development of novel drugs. For example, teprotide, a peptide isolated from the venom of the Brazilian viper, was the lead compound for the development of the anti-hypertensive agents cilazapril and captopril.
If the active principle is present in a mixture of other compounds from a natural source, it M icrobiology Laboratory Services
has to be isolated and purified. The ease with which the active principle can be isolated and purified depends on the structure, stability, and quantity of the compound. The development of experimental procedures such as freeze-drying and modern chromatography and spectroscopy has made feasible the isolation and purification of The Food Technology Centre has modern facilities to extract, isolate and purify natural bioactive compounds. Please contact Dr. Muhammad Yousaf, Organic/Purification bottles, or for further information about Chemist, to learn more about our extraction, isolation and purification services: tel: (902) microbiology laboratory at (902) 368-5937. Supercritical Fluid Extraction Workshop
“I was very happy to have participated in With the assistance of Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, the the workshop on Supercritical Fluid Food Technology Centre was pleased to provide a Extraction. It was great to learn about Supercritical Fluid Extraction Workshop to ten participants on such a unique and emerging technique in March 25-27. The presenter was Rodger Marentis, of the world of natural product extraction in Supercritical Solutions LLC in Pennsylvania, a consultant with North America. There are significant many years of experience in this technology. The workshop advantages to being one of the few covered fundamentals of supercritical processing and facilities to have this equipment. With examples of industrial applications, with emphasis on practical such growing interest in natural health implementation of the technology. Following the workshop, there was an opportunity for one-on-one and small group meetings with Mr. Marentis for those interested in discussing environmental issues, it is exciting to see potential extraction processes in detail. a technology that is so progressive andattractive to both sectors. I am glad to “I appreciated the time I spent with the people at the PEI Food Technology Centre. The have had the opportunity to learn about seminars were well run and it was very beneficial to see the pilot plant in operation. As a this new and promising method.” (K.
company we are very interested in the application of supercritical technology to our marine oil industry. It was helpful and informative to witness the work in person rather than merelyreading about it. The staff of at the Centre were friendly and accommodating. I look “The Supercritical Fluid Extraction forward to hearing of their progress and advancement in this unique extraction method.” W o r k s h o p p r o v i d e d e x c e l l e n t (D. Richer, Sales and Marketing Director, AquaSource Products Inc., Surrey, BC) opportunities for discussing the processitself and for networking with otherscientists in the community. I would On-the-Job Trainee from the Bioscience Technology Program
definitely consider attending a similarworkshop at the FTC!” (J. Livingston, Mitchell MacRae, a student of the Bioscience Technology Program at Holland College, Charlottetown, just completed a six week on-the-job training term at the Food TechnologyCentre. He was mentored by the Natural Products Extractionstaff who provided training on specialized equipment such as Food Safety Workshops
ultrasonicators, HPLC systems, rotary evaporators, fluidized bed dryers, and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction.
MacRae said, “the staff treated me with kindness and respect and helped me in any way they could. It is exciting to knowthat facilities such as the FTC are capable of extracting and For further information on these, or if you purifying compounds with green technologies here on Prince Edward Island.” would like a course held in your area,please contact Jim Landrigan at 902-368- Over the six weeks of training MacRae was introduced to the business and production side of working with a client and developing a quality product. The training program providedhim with an opportunity to acquire new skills as well as experience working in an ISO 9001pilot production facility.
Funding Programs
Links to information about programs
available from our funding partners are
Featured FOODTECH Canada Centre:
Canadian Institute of Fisheries
Technology
Thirteen similar centres across Canada have formed a network incorporated as Prince Edward Island Food Technology
FOODTECH Canada. The purpose of this network is to provide technical support forCanada's food processors to commercialise new products, to enable the centres to work on large projects that they could not do on their own, and to allow the centres to focus on their particular expertise. This month we are featuring a FOODTECH Canada Centre in Dalhousie University was established in 1979 as a specialized resource centre of advanced technology for research and education in food science and process engineering with anemphasis on seafoods. The Institute promotes technology transferand the development of advanced technologies aimed at more To be added to our newsletter emailing
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Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology Tel: 902-494-6030

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