Applying high technology to develop the value of Thai Nguyen tea trees

Dr. Vu Duc Loi, Director of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology, said that the development orientation of the unit is to take enterprises as the center, focusing on supporting enterprises to improve their innovation capacity and apply technology to production and business.

The Institute's scientific and technological tasks are selected according to the enterprise-centered model. Research topics must be based on market and enterprise needs, focusing on developing new technologies with high added value and open innovation in engineering and technology, especially taking the final product as a measure to evaluate the success of scientific and technological activities.

The Institute has identified tea as one of the strategic research subjects in the field of biotechnology. Through this cooperation project, the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology hopes to contribute to the transfer of modern, fundamental technologies to create high value-added products from Thai Nguyen tea and promote the sustainable development of the Vietnamese tea industry.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding, the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology and FiboLabs will jointly research and develop a process for extracting and purifying EGCG compounds and creating nanoEGCG. After completing the pilot-scale research, the results will be transferred to Viet Bac L'Héritage Company for application in the production of EGCG at the company's extraction plant in Thai Nguyen province.

Viet Bac L'Héritage said it will develop a distribution and business system to bring Vietnamese tea products to the market, not only domestically but also for export to international markets such as the United States, Japan, Korea, and the European Union.

EGCG is a natural polyphenol found most abundantly in green tea leaves, much higher than in other species such as apples, plums, onions, chestnuts, hazelnuts... Due to the presence of many phenol groups, it has a very strong antioxidant effect, leading to good pharmacological effects such as preventing cardiovascular diseases, cancer, Alzheimer's, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, UV absorption... and has been widely applied in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic fields. The world's demand for EGCG is estimated to reach over 5 billion USD per year by 2030.

Despite its many health benefits, EGCG is poorly absorbed orally or topically, meaning it has poor bioavailability because EGCG is unstable and very polar. To increase the bioavailability of this active ingredient, scientists will develop a nanoEGCG form for easier absorption, increasing the effectiveness of the active ingredient as a raw material for manufacturing consumer products.

Tea is one of the main crops of Thai Nguyen, contributing about 10-15% of the total product in the area, up to 12.3 trillion VND per year. The whole province currently has nearly 22,500 hectares of tea, with plans to expand to 23,500 hectares by 2025.

If calculated for the whole of Vietnam, the value of the tea economy is estimated at over 500 million USD, of which about half is exported. However, a large amount of waste such as old tea leaves and broken tea must be discarded every year, up to tens of thousands of tons, while they contain a very large amount of EGCG.

It can be said that the cooperation is a testament to the efforts to commercialize research results from public research organizations to the private sector, aiming to implement Resolution 57/NQ-TU on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation.

In recent times, the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology has developed 18 technologies at the transfer ready level, of which 8 technologies/products have been accepted and applied in practice by businesses.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dua-cong-nghe-cao-phat-trien-gia-tri-cay-che-thai-nguyen-post872657.html