This subproject deals with questions about the cultivation of Lamiaceae, which are interesting for the production of active ingredients, since either there is no cultivation experience for these species or cultivation currently takes place in southern Europe and North Africa under incomparable agronomic, climatic and socio-economic conditions. This requires reproducible material of several origins of the species to be tested. The cultivation of the species rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus), sage (Salvia officinalis) and Chinese bush nettle (Isodon rubescens) is planned. The focus is on the suitability for cultivation and the development of the active ingredient content during plant development.

In DiP-NA-WIR, various digital information will be generated using different OMICs technologies (transcriptomics, genomics and metabolomics) and, together with the sub-project “Cultivation of new medicinal plants”, a harvest forecast model will be developed that will predict the optimal harvest time. Another central task in the sub-project “Digital Data” will be to increase the data literacy of all participants through close cooperation with and in all work packages, and to upgrade the data generated in the project to digital information. After all, modern agricultural and life sciences are no longer conceivable without careful and standardized data management on the one hand and powerful, reproducible workflows and analyses on the other.

The aim is to develop an efficient, durable and environmentally friendly extraction protocol for the active ingredients carnosic acid from rosemary and sage and oridonin from Chinese bush nettle. The plant material is broken down by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Various parameters are optimized to achieve a high yield of target substance.

The central core for the development of higher added value from plant resources in the DiP-NA-WIR project is the biotransformation of the starting materials into higher-quality active ingredients. In this process, the plant-based ingredients are converted into potential new active ingredients by means of enzymes. In the high-throughput screening process, new substances are to be generated efficiently and quickly from carnosic acid or oridonine.

This subproject involves the investigation of terpenoids with regard to the inhibition of selected target enzymes associated with bacterial infections. In particular, the aim is to identify drug candidates that specifically inhibit colonization with bacterial pathogens (pathhoblockers). In a first step, drug candidates will be tested for potential inhibition of essential enzymes of pathogenic microorganisms. In a second step, the influence of the active ingredients on the growth of the pathogens is examined. It is important to inhibit the release of virulence factors, but not to kill the pathogen in order to avoid selection pressure and thus resistance.

In this subproject, the potential active substances are tested for cytotoxicity against a selection of tumor cell lines. The 2D cell model and the 3D spheroid model are used for this purpose. The main focus is on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and breast cancer.

The sub-project provides techno- and socio-economic support to support sustainable technology development. In addition, innovation and market potentials are to be identified and evaluated. An additional focus is on the quantification of regional value creation through a potential expansion of medicinal plant production in the Central German region.