complete production chain and importance: natural products

The production chain with natural products has three major parts to consider. The fi rst is agricultural, followed by, for example, extraction to get a concentrated raw extract, and in pharmaceutical applications (not with cosmetics and nutraceuticals) a fi nal purifi cation step is necessary in order to get an ultrapure product To highlight the importance of including the complete production chain, we can consider growing a crop of plants containing oleanoic acid. This is found in several plants (almond hulls, privet, rosemary, thyme, clove, lavender, olive, hawthorn, periwinkle etc.) with a content less than 1% in dry mass. Higher values were observed only with a different kind of sage. The value varies with location and local climate (e.g., Germany versus Greece), types of soil (sandy, thus irrigation needed), distance between the growing rows and cultivar. With the latter, higher content is with plants from scions obtained through vegetative reproduction ( Salvia offi cinalis ) compared with those from sowing ( S. lavendulifolia ). However, planting with scions is very labor - intensive, which has quite an impact in respect to labor costs, and sowing is then the alternative. Optimal conditions for sage are with warm and wind - protected sites, with a light soil containing compost and water. Dry periods are no major problem and the plants should grow in rows (distance 25 – 50 cm) as depicted in Figure 1.7 [15] . Usually, the useful life is four to fi ve years and for soil recovery a four - year interval is recommended. If the plants are used to gain pharmaceutical extracts, all cultivation steps (sowing, manuring etc.) must be documented and with pest management any pesticide (date, dosage etc.) must be registered. With sage the use of herbicides is forbidden and two cuts per year are recommended