PLT Will Introduce Cultivated-Sourced Rhodiola rosea Ingredient into the North American Market

Morristown, NJ 12 September 2022 – PLT Health Solutions, Inc announced that it will begin offering its  Rhodiolife® Rhodiola rosea ingredient made from a cultivated source of root materials. The cultivation  program – developed by PLT innovation partner Nektium Pharma (Las Palmas, Spain) – is the result of  more than a decade of effort focused on achieving a physical and phytochemical profile identical to  previously supplied wildcrafted material. Rhodiolife will continue to be sourced from the Altai Mountain  region of Central Asia. The quality control program for Rhodiolife will continue to include state-of-the-art  ingredient identification and analytic techniques. The cultivation program will address concerns that crop  up with all wildcrafted botanicals from time to time, including harvest size, security of supply, the  phytochemical composition of wild-harvested materials and sustainability.

According to Devin Stagg, Chief Operating Officer for PLT Health Solutions, the new cultivation program  can serve as a model for the industry as it seeks to balance commercial growth with sustainability.  “Conducted properly, wildcrafting is a highly sustainable method of obtaining botanical raw materials. But,  when an ingredient like Rhodiola rosea becomes more popular, nature isn’t always in the position to  respond to a global surge in demand. It’s important that we understand this and constantly take steps to  ensure sustainability, or we won’t have access to the natural, botanical materials that form the foundation  of our products,” he said. “The cultivation and quality control program that support Rhodiolife are built on  thoughtful growing and harvesting methodologies and based on cutting-edge scientific techniques to  ensure the production of an ingredient that is of high quality and consistent batch to batch,” he added.

Matching an Industry Standard

Rhodiola rosea is an extremely hardy plant well suited to the cold climate and high altitude where it grows  and is now farmed. The Altai Mountains derive their name from the Mongolian word ‘altan’, meaning  ‘golden’, which may be why Rhodiola rosea is often referred to as the ‘golden root’. The new cultivated  material is grown not by seeds but by vegetative propagation with root rhizomes – a technique that is  faster, more dependable and, crucially, ensures that the molecular composition of the cultivated Rhodiola  rosea is identical to the wild-grown plant. Nektium has put into place a Quality Assurance system that  monitors Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACPs) governing rules of production, harvesting,  storage, and record keeping. These are accompanied by training programs and traceability and recall

plans. Manually harvested, the Rhodiola roots are transported to Nektium’s facilities in the Canary Islands  for further processing.

Nektium’s Quality Assurance team conducts multiple identity tests on every batch of Rhodiolife, including  macroscopic and sensorial analysis, the development of chromatographic profiles and independent DNA  barcode analysis to ensure the authenticity of the raw material. A gentle extraction process is used to  unlock the active ingredients while preserving the natural phytochemical profile of the root. The material is  then standardized to provide precise levels of bioactive compounds. The resulting HPLC ‘fingerprint’ of  the Rhodiolife extract is consistent from batch to batch and matches with that of the native root. According to Stagg, this approach offers greater peace of mind around authenticity, which is especially  important when adulteration is suspected. Recently, the American Botanical Council’s Botanical  Adulterants Prevention Program suggested that high demand for Rhodiola rosea led to it being mixed or  interchanged with other Rhodiola species before being exported from Asia.

Sustainability and Social Responsibility

As one of the first businesses to commercialize Rhodiola rosea extract successfully, Nektium has an  established history of working alongside and supporting the local partners who undertake the harvesting  of this valuable plant. To assure that a similar quality of work was being conducted Nektium and PLT  worked with Botanical Liaison’s Trish Flaster on establishing criteria for continuing sustainability of the  cultivated material. “PLT Health Solutions is one of those companies that has taken sustainability  seriously for the past 30 years by creating programs and lines of communication within their supply chain.  Nektium’s approach with this cultivation project for Rhodiola rosea fits this goal because its habitat is a  fragile ecosystem – alpine. Nektium’s first of its kind cultivation achievement relieves the pressures from  the alpine terrain,” she said.

“Cultivation may be the first step in being sustainable, but it is more than simply planting a seed and  having it grown. Multiple factors must be considered before claiming to have a sustainable cultivated raw  ingredient. As part of our sustainability audit, we reviewed propagation and growing techniques, growing  locations, water sources, harvest timing and technique and post-harvest handling. PLT also takes cultural  sustainability seriously, caring for those who handle the product at every stage of the process. In each of  these areas, the Rhodiolife material is produced in the most sustainable manner possible and may well  be the most sustainable Rhodiola rosea on the market today,” she added.

For more information on this ingredient, visit www.plthealth.com/rhodiolife.