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On Feb. 22, the International Biological Material Research Center (Director Choi Sang-ho) of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB, President Chang Kyu-tae) announced that the diospyros blancoi, which is Costa Rica anti-inflammatory and highly active plant, GAP mass plantation farm was opened.
The opening ceremony was held on Feb. 21 on local time of Costa Rica (KST 1:00 am, Feb. 22) at the University of Earth with the participation of 50 people including director Jeong Byeong-seon of basic raw material research and policy of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, director Randall Garcia of INBio, director Choi Sang-ho of the International Biological Material Research Center, Korean embassy to Costa Rica and officials from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Communications of Costa Rica.
Diospyros blancoi A. DC. belongs to Ebenaceae group, which is evenly distributed in tropical forest. In Costa Rica, it is also called mabolo and the fruit is surrounded by velvet-like red-brown peel and the taste and scent of it are similar to those of persimmon in Korea.
A team led by Dr. Choi Sang-ho/Oh Se-ryang has conducted a joint research with INBio of Costa Rica since 2008 and confirmed that the extracts of diospyros blancoi were effective in inflammatory allergy, asthma, and anti-aging. Domestic patent and overseas patent registration (China, US) were applied with the inclusion of new compounds separated from the plant.
In addition, it is planned to transfer the technology to domestic industry and signed a contract on joint research regarding the original material for the development of natural product new drug, health functional food and cosmetics by completing the standardization of original materials of compounds at the acquisition timing, region and part level.
KRIBB has undertaken the tasks of identifying original material to overcome the limitation of poor domestic biological resources and develop high added value food and medicine by conducting “project to secure and utilize overseas biological materials” with the support of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning since 2006.
The KRIBB has established a joint research center in 4 base areas [China (2007), Costa Rica (2008), Indonesia (2009) and Vietnam (2013)] to secure useful overseas biological resources.
President Chang Kyu-tae of the KRIBB said “the opening of the GAP plantation farm will serve as an opportunity to establish a good example of complying with Nagoya Protocol and develop biotechnology as well as status of diplomacy based on science in both countries as all processes from identification of useful overseas biological resources to support for industrialization (one-stop service) are conducted with the country that possesses resources.”