Uribio Achieves Mass Cultivation of Marigold, Raw Material for Lutein, in Plant Factory

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Woori Bio announced on the 1st that it has succeeded in mass cultivating marigold, a lutein raw material beneficial for eye health, in a hydroponic-based vertical plant factory.

Since last year, Woori Bio has been conducting joint research and development with Yuhan Health Care, Sejong University, and Chung-Ang University, supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs-funded Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Customized Innovative Food and Natural Safe Material Technology Development Project." This achievement was made by developing lutein-containing materials using domestically produced green-yellow vegetables and marigold flowers from plant factories.

Recently, with growing interest in eye health, the market size for lutein-containing health functional foods has been rapidly increasing every year. Currently, raw materials extracted from marigolds cultivated in open fields in India and China are being imported.

Most marigolds are cultivated in open fields and are vulnerable to pests and diseases, raising safety concerns about the raw materials due to periodic pesticide applications, residual pesticides, and environmental pollution such as heavy metals and fine dust.

Woori Bio identified LED light, temperature, and nutrient solution environments that enable precise environmental control in a clean space to produce marigolds containing high concentrations of lutein. They developed a cultivation method including light recipes and stress-inducing factors that increase lutein content, successfully achieving mass cultivation through demonstration cultivation research.

Woori Bio plans to file a patent application for the method of increasing marigold production and lutein content under LED light source conditions, a first in Korea.

A Woori Bio official stated, "With this cultivation method, marigolds can be grown up to four times a year in vertical plant factories, enabling up to ten times more yield per unit area annually compared to open-field cultivation. We can produce marigolds with uniform quality, with functional ingredient content variation within 10%, improving quality control and efficiency by reducing content variation caused by cultivation environments."

Woori Bio plans to continue research on additional functionalities beyond eye health using marigold, which has various reported physiological activities, and on increasing functional ingredient content using precise environmental control technology in plant factories.

Additionally, for research on medical cannabis raw materials, Woori Bio has been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as an academic researcher handling narcotics and is conducting studies to increase the content of various physiologically active substances. Through institutional joint research, they are commercializing raw materials produced independently in plant factories for use and development in food and pharmaceuticals.

The official added, "We expect this to be a significant stepping stone for advancing as a global leading company and strengthening competitiveness in the medical cannabis raw material business sector."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.