This strategic decision making centre houses the core R&D and Administrative/ Executive facility. Concepts for the several innovative products from Sabinsa are originated in these laboratories and successfully commercialized.

This division forms the core of the company and has played a significant role for the organization to reach its present status. The team is basically involved in developing and optimizing extraction processes to obtain standardized extracts from identified natural sources. Other core activities of this division include identification, isolation, and characterization of bio-actives.

Because of high-level of dedication shown by the team, Sabinsa has been able to skillfully commercialize standardized phytoextracts that function as nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals or nutricosmetics to meet the ever increasing global needs.

The department is well-equipped among many other sophisticated equipment like Nikon Eclipse Ci Microscope attached with digital Nikon Camera DS-Ri 2. This division is supported by Pharmacognosy department, another important part of our R&D unit, in authenticating the raw materials used in the production for their morphological and microscopic characteristics.

Synthetic Chemistry department mainly focuses on development of new bioactive molecules for pharmaceutical as well as cosmetic applications. A plethora of synthons made at this facility extends to peptides, sugars, natural products, peptide and natural active hybrids, chiral molecules, drug intermediates, markers etc. This is why Sami-Sabinsa Group catalog of specialty chemicals gets regularly updated with new and valuable additions.

For each molecule that goes to pilot/production scale, the scientists at the R&D facility constantly strive to simplify synthetic routes to enable easier scale-up, better costing with a focus to be environmentally benign. A long list of publications and patents support the high-quality research that the department is involved in.

The department also undertakes synthesis of customer-based natural molecules and/or corresponding metabolites as well as other general organics for various biophysical studies. Several research institutes and universities in India and abroad are in touch with the department and make use of our expertise.

The main focus of this division is on micropropagation of elite clones of plants with significant bioactivity. It also works on selected rare plants for propagation, through tissue culture techniques in the laboratory.

The typical steps followed are:

1. Isolation of high yielding varieties
2. Rapid multiplication of selected plants through tissue culture technology
3. Field trials of the multiplied varieties
4. Supply the plant to contract farmers for large-scale cultivation

Some of the plants that have been cultivated through tissue culture are Coleus forskohlii, Curcuma longa and Allium sativum. Newer techniques are also being developed for secondary metabolite production through callus culture.

Sami-Sabinsa Group is an agriculture-based company. The Agri-biotechnology team at Sami-Sabinsa Group is engaged in prospection of elite genotypes of high value medicinal and aromatic plants, ensuring desired planting material of a specific crop suitable for commercial cultivation in a specific climatic zone, developing agro-techniques and standardizing post-harvest technologies and transferring these to the field through contract cultivation.

With the philosophy of ‘Cultivation leads to conservation and reduces the burden on wild resources,’ we pioneered the cultivation of Coleus forskohlii in India on thousands of acres, followed by commercial cultivation of turmeric, amla, tulsi and many other medicinal plants. The introduction of Coleus forskohlii from the wild to successful commercial cultivation by Sami-Sabinsa Group ensured the sustainable utilization and conservation of this valuable medicinal crop. Efforts to develop plant extracts as a source of concentrated natural, nutritional supplements is a research priority of the group. Modified hydroponic techniques for enriching various micronutrients, viz. iron and zinc in green gram and selenium in garlic have been discovered and translated to successful launch of commercial products.

Our analytical R&D lab has been audited and accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for its validated testing protocols. Equipped with State-of-the-art facility to meet international standards, this division plays a pivotal role in setting the product standards and ensuring the adherence to these set of qualities.

An array of modern equipment are deployed in this division so as to characterize various extracts and newer molecules, and evaluate quality of each product in a more precise and conclusive way. Various highly sophisticated instruments present in this laboratory include HPLC, GC, LC-MS, HP-TLC, HATR, CHNS analyzer, GC-MS, NMR (300 MHz), ICP-MS, LCMS-MS, GCMS-MS.

To comply with the varied quality requirements globally, the Analytical R&D ensures quality of the finished products with regard to

• Method developments and their validation
• Bio-active content (assay/purity)
• Limitations of heavy metals, residual solvents and pesticide residues
• Other physical and chemical parameters as per the specifications
• Recovery studies of various formulations

The biological research division of Sami-Sabinsa Group is also NABL-accredited. It mainly focuses on developing safety & efficacy profile of the products by screening through an elaborate series of in vitro methods that does not involve testing on animals.

The team has been instrumental in evaluating numerous phytoingredients and cosmeceuticals for their safety and efficacy using a battery of in vitro testing technologies in the following fields of research, and the lab is well-equipped with sophisticated instruments like Flow cytometer, RT-PCR.