REGIO-PLANTS

Establishment of a research network for the use of health-promoting plant materials from the Bavaria-Tyrol-Upper Austria region: from identification to efficent use

Regio-Plants Team
Picture: Martin Sandner 

Logo Regio-Plants
Picture: Michaela Feichtinger

Plants in focus
Picture: Carolina Schwarzinger 

Objectives

Naturally occurring plant compounds can have positive effects on diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, but also on the health and performance of livestock. Regio-Plants is building an interdisciplinary and transnational research network in which the partners are engaged in the search for new active ingredients from indigenous plants. In addition, they are expanding their knowledge of local health-promoting plants such as pomaceous fruits (especially apples), including variety selection, cultivation methods, and storage conditions. The target groups of the activities are companies (primary producers and processors) and consumers as well as the scientific community.

Activities

• Extension and screening of a regional extract library

• Investigation of cultivation measures and storage of pomaceous fruit with focus on value-giving constituents

• Development of test systems for the allergenic potential of crops

• Investigation of the constituents of apples depending on variety, cultivation, and storage

• Characterization and cultivation of regional plants with blood sugar lowering effect

• Characterization of regional plants for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases

• Dissemination of the obtained information to the public and companies (e.g. fruit growers, producer associations)

Results

• Practical, scientific network for the use of regional plant materials for human health

• Competence in quantifying the allergenic potential of crops

• Increased knowledge about the use of apples and other regional crops among project partners as well as primary producers and processors

Lead Partner

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (Project Lead Clemens Röhrl)

Project Partners

• Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (Dominikus Kittemann)

• Austrian Competence Centre for Feed and Food Quality Safety and Innovation (FFoQSI – Julian Weghuber)

• Technical University of Munich (Corinna Dawid)

• Austrian Drug Screening Institute GmbH (ADSI – Thomas Jackschitz)

Lead Researcher: 

FH-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Julian Weghuber

FFoQSI Area Leader GREEN

Head of Department
Food Technology and Nutrition, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria

julian.weghuber@fh-wels.at
+43 5 0804 44403
www.fh-ooe.at