Davis-based Botanical Solution Inc. has raised $7 million to scale up its production of rare plant tissue for use in medicine and agriculture.
This funding round was led by Palo Alto-based private equity firm Otter Capital LLC, which also led a $6 million funding round for Botanical Solution last year.
“It’s a nice summer break to get this news,” said Gaston Salinas, CEO of Botanical Solution.
The money will be used to scale up production for the company in Chile, as well as to expand its local research and development work in labs and greenhouses in Davis and at The Lab@AgStart’s shared lab space in Woodland.
The local work is concentrated on developing and improving genetic lines of the Chilean soap bark tree, Salinas said.
Botanical Solution has developed production techniques to grow plant material from the soap bark tree that produces the pharmaceutical adjuvant QS-21, which is used to increase efficacy of vaccines and medicines.
Most QS-21 is obtained from the inner bark of the mature soap bark tree, Quillaja saponaria.
However, harvesting the compound kills the tree, which is protected in nature. And the limited number of soap bark trees cannot meet the needs of industry and pharma.
Botanical Solution uses indoor-raised plants as tiny biofactories to manufacture rare extracts in a patented process that allows it to control conditions and outcomes in infant plants so that rare and protected species don’t have to be harvested.
Salinas said the company is on track to start delivering its QS-21 in kilogram scale for use in development of human vaccines later this year. The company has a distribution partnership with British ingredients company Croda International PLC.
In addition to its pharmaceutical applications, Botanical Solution also uses an extract of the soap bark tree to create its branded product Quillibrium for use in agriculture in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile and the European Union. Quillibrium is distributed in a partnership with Switzerland-based chemical company Syngenta.
Quillibrium is a biofungicide that combats gray mold, which is a problem for grapes, hops, almonds and other high-value crops. The extract doesn’t kill the mold, but compounds in the extract inhibit enzymes that the fungus uses to colonize tissue. It also inhibits the ability of the fungus to propagate more spores. The extract has no toxicity to humans.
Botanical Solution is doing its local research at the UC Davis-HM.Clause Life Science Innovation Center south of Davis, a facility that also has greenhouse space.
Both the Life Science Innovation Center and the Lab@AgStart offer shared equipment and lab space for agricultural and plant-based pharmaceutical research.
