The NPHYTBIOACT project intends to demonstrate the feasibility of using innovative technologies to improve the exploitation of natural resources (plants and plant by-products) and to increase the efficiency of phyto-pharmaceutical formulations. The main objective of the project is to provide a complete solution for the development and validation at laboratory scale of new phyto-pharmaceutical formulations with enhanced bioactivity. The achievement of the main objective of NPHYTBIOACT involves the following steps: 1.Validation of existing innovative extraction technologies at consortium level for silymarin extraction from armourarium and polyphenol/flavonoid extraction from mace; 2. Development of phyto-phospholipid complexes (phytosomes) and their characterisation; formulation of novel phyto-pharmaceuticals incorporating previously synthesised phytosomes (the "active compound-phospholipid" complexes). In this project, the target active compounds are silymarin and polyphenols/flavonoids respectively, while the phospholipids are phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidyl ethanolamine; 3.Validation of the new phytosome-based formulations at laboratory level.

At project completion the following deliverables will be provided: two validated extraction technologies (microwave-assisted extraction) for silymarin from armurarium (plant, by-product) and polyphenols/flavonoids from rosehip (plant, young branches, by-products); selective concentration and standardisation of extracts; validated laboratory-scale procedures for phytosome synthesis: Silymarin-phytosomes and flavonoid-phytosomes, respectively; validated formulations for novel phyto-products with enhanced bioactivity including synthesised phytosomes.

NPHYTBIOACT aims to realise a knowledge leap, building on existing results at consortium level and aiming to improve existing knowledge to obtain new phyto-products with increased bioactivity and high solubility in biological fluids.