Plants are known to be a valuable source of drugs. With the current knowledge this characteristic can be even further exploited. In this project we will establish the suitability of the industrial inuline producing crop chicory for the production of the important anti-malarial drug artemisinin, which has the potential to also be developed into drugs against other diseases such as schistosomiasis and cancer. However, the supply of artemisinin is troublesome as total synthesis is not feasible and the only plant species known to produce artemisinin, Artemisia annua L., contains only low amounts of this compound. In this project we will exploit the biosynthetic potential and existing processing chain of industrial chicory (grown for inuline production) to produce artemisinin or artemisinin precursors in Europe. This will be achieved by combining the biosynthetic potentials of A. annua and chicory into one green factory. Chicory could then also be developed into a production platform for other high-value terpenoids such as the grapefruit flavour nootkatone.
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