Industrial development

A company, Bioextracts Pty Ltd, was established to fund and commercialize our research.  A process that we have developed for extracting proanthocyanidins has been licensed by Bioextracts to Merck Pharmaceuticals and is marketed as Bioxidin. Another product Phytobiotic is a cream used to combat wound infections. There are several other products in the development stage.

Several other small industrial companies supplied funds to investigate potential applications of plant extracts.  In some cases products were patented.

We received funding against strong national competition of R2.2 million over a two year period to investigate the replacement of antibiotic feed additives in poultry feed for 2004/2005.

Patents, Licences and Industrial products

Under the auspices of Bioextracts Pty Ltd several patents have been registered and several products licensed to companies.

1              Provisional South African Patent 2004/6953 Antimicrobial composition [The use of a herbal plant extract to combat acidogenic tooth decay bacteria.]  1 September 2004. South African patent registered

2              Provisional South African Patent 2005/07625 Extraction of an antifungal agent from a plant. Process has been licensed.

3              A South African patent application on a method to produce grape seed extracts with high antioxidant activity has been granted.  Process has been licensed and a product “Bioxidin” is in the market already.

4              A provisional South African patent on developing an ointment from a plant extract to combat skin infections has been submitted. Process has been licensed and a product is on the market.

5              A provisional South African patent on developing a combined plant extract from three non-toxic plants to replace antibiotic feed additives

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