Biosynthetic Rhodiola Rosea glycosides May Be Commercialized

A U.S. company recently launched a new ingredient called "LK-01 Pure Rhodiarome Glucoside," which has the same biological properties as rhodiarome glucoside, the main active ingredient in the plant Rhodiola rosea. The company said it focused on rhodiola because of the plant's market potential.

Traditionally, rhodiola is often presented as an adaptogenic herbal concept with applications related to stress, mood, etc., while rhodiol glycosides have a role at the cellular level.

As rhodiola grows in popularity, the supply chain of plant sources can face problems, and there are sustainability advantages to the biosynthetic approach.

The company is described as using a development platform to decode the biosynthetic pathways of valuable natural compounds such as rhodiola to identify active molecules valuable for bioengineering. Researchers can then use another computer, called PRISM, to decode which microbial genes need to be altered and in what way to modify cell factories to produce the desired molecules.

The company is currently using precision glycosylation technology to bioengineer functional glycosyl groups to improve the specificity and effectiveness of active substances. This patented technology harnesses the potential of glycosyl sequences through extensive selectivity and control. The technology enables rapid screening of potential candidates against a proprietary enzyme library to identify the best enzymes and the best glycan chains for biocoupling, and then optimizes their structures using an ever-expanding array of functional glycosyl groups to achieve the desired effect.

"LK-01 pure rhodiroside is one of the active compounds that the company has designed precisely using the above platform technology. To date, the company has successfully bioengineered a variety of molecules to develop more than a dozen natural products.