SBIR-STTR Award

Aloe vera is a widely used plant found in hundreds of products. Most commercial aloe cultivation has been off shored. U.S. manufacturers of aloe containing products must import this crop but this material often has issues with seasonal variation dilution contamination with pesticides and even adulteration. Additionally aloe produces carcinogens such as aloin that must be removed before use through costly processing steps. We aim to solve the current issues with aloe by the development of a commercial Aloe vera plant cell culture. The liquid culture of plants is an established technology in which plants are grown as a fine suspension of small clumps or single cells. Unlike Aloe vera plants, an aloe cell culture can be domestically-produced in a safe and high quality way without pesticides or adulterants. Aloe cell culture also allows the application of techniques to isolate aloe cell lines that do not produce the carcinogen aloin. Chi Botanic has recently established an aloe cell culture. Our objectives for this Phase I proposal is to (1) optimize growth of our aloe plant cell cultures (2)determine the quality of this plant material (polysaccharide and aloin content) and (3) develop aloe plant cell lines that do not produce the carcinogen aloin. To accomplish these objectives we will subject our aloe cell cultures to culture optimization methods commonly used to optimize growth of microorganisms. To generate aloin free plant cell cultures we will apply a gene editing approach to disrupt known genes involved in aloin biosynthesis. This research will establish aloe cell culture technology as an innovative and domestic way to produce products from aloe.

Aloe vera is a widely used plant found in hundreds of products because it produces polyacetylated mannans a polysaccharide that promotes skin health. Most commercial aloe cultivation has been offshored. U.S. manufacturers of aloe-containing products must import this crop but this material often has issues with seasonal variation dilution contamination with pesticides and even adulteration. Additionally aloe produces the carcinogen aloin that must be removed with costly processing steps before use. We aim to solve the current issues with aloe by the development of a commercial Aloe vera plant cell culture. Plant cell culture is an established technology in which plants are grown as a fine suspension of small clumps or single cells. Unlike Aloe vera plants an aloe cell culture can be domestically produced in a safe and high-quality way without pesticides or adulterants. During Phase I Chi Botanic established an aloe cell culture and characterized its aloin and polyacetylated mannan content. Our objectives for this Phase II proposal is to (1) establish downstream bioseparations processes to convert aloe cell cultures into high-quality aloe products by establishing and optimizing filtration drying and milling procedures (2) increase polyacetylated mannan production in aloe cell cultures by using elicitors and selection strategies and (3) develop aloe plant cell lines that do not produce the carcinogen aloin by disrupting genes involved in anthraquinone biosynthesis. The results of this work will be aloe plant cell lines and methods to produce high-value aloe domestically. This aloe will be formulated into cosmetic products with a commercial partner.