Planta Analytica
Planta Analytica was founded in 1999 to fill a void which had overtaken the pharmaceutical market since the 1980s. Big pharmaceutical companies abandoned natural products research in favor of High Throughput Screening which promised high efficiency in developing target specific molecules, however the reality has proven much the opposite. We understood that natural products research still offered enormously untapped potential for the discovery of new biologically active components. Our ideology is that if nature has been adapting its biological processes since plants came into existence, it has with absolute certainty already made the compounds we need. We just need to start asking the right questions…Over the years, be it through the projects which we perform for clients, or our own research, we are pushing forward with this ideology. We are using our expertise in chromatographic and seperatory sciences to delve into natural products that historically had medical application, foods specific to various cultures and new synthetic and biologically derived components that are sculpting the world around us.Since our beginnings, our business has grown to accommodate a wider scope of projects across different industries. We provide impurity isolation services for agrochemical markets, compound standardization services for the food industry, and we have greatly expanded our research in the natural products and nutraceutical industry.ISOLATION OF LOW LEVEL IMPURITIES FOR PRODUCTS SLANTED FOR REGULATORY APPROVAL (E.G. REGISTRATION OF NOVEL AGROCHEMICAL AGENTS).Service Outline Isolation of low level impurities in quantities sufficient for structural elucidation and for the required study Ability to resolve and isolate components that co-elute in HPLC Specialization in isolation of closely related synthetic products Structural elucidation, component identification and documentation of impuritiesWhen bringing a product to market, regulatory approval requires the isolation and characterization of structures for all impurities in the technical material exceeding a concentration of 0.1%. Very often, the impurities belong to the same family of substances as the main component. The close structural similarity of the impurities and their low natural concentration add to the difficulty of such projects.Regulatory Approval ProcessTo be able to sell, use, or biologically test your product, the regulations set forth by various agencies like the FDA and USDA must be met. The regulatory approval process requires the isolation and characterization of structures for all impurities in the technical material exceeding a concentration of 0.1%. To ensure accurate structural elucidation, we work with cutting-edge laboratories to acquire high resolution and accurate NMR, mass spectroscopy, and UV-VIS data.Impurity Isolation vs. Small Molecule IsolationAlthough impurity isolation generally falls into small molecule isolation, it has its own distinctive character. Before the impurities can be purified by preparative chromatography their relative concentration must be brought up at least into a minimum range of 10 – 30% by the enrichment techniques, which comprise chromatographic as well as non-chromatographic methods. This usually constitutes the most difficult and time consuming stage requiring experience and skill. The final step is often done by preparative HPLC and often looks like a formality. Moreso, when dealing with bacterially derived products such as agrochemicals, the product comprises a single major component and several impurities that are structurally very similar. The structural similarity as well as the large disparity in concentration between main component and impurities requires non-conventional approaches.Specialization in Wide Range of AgrochemicalsWe have developed an extensive expertise in impurity isolation for some of those most challenging agrochemical products including abamectins, emamectins, pyrethrins, azadirachtins and others.