Plant Lipid Biotechnology Lab (PLBL)

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Description of the Projects

Current Projects:

Desert oil crops for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and energy source
Plant oils have become more importance in recent days then before specially in the food, fuel and pharmaceuticals and cosmetic industries. However due to the increasing population and competition of natural resources the production of oil crops has been limiting. The PLBL's interest is to study on the oil crops that can be produced in the marginal land specifically on desert. The PLBL has focused mainly on olives (Oliva europea), desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca), Shea (Vitellaria Paradoxa) and Pomegranate (Punica granatum) as plant resources as lipid raw materials for bio-industries centers on the study of the genetic diversity and on the environmental evaluation. These oil trees are well adapted to semiarid conditions and that have industrial potential in the food, agrochemical, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

Isolation, characterization and anticancer activity of steroidal saponins from Balanites aegyptiaca Del.
Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del., popularly known as the desert date, is a spiny, evergreen tree commonly grown in the drier parts of the world including Israel. B. aegyptiaca has many valuable uses and its extracts are considered an important ingredient in many traditional medicines. Literature review shows molluscidal, antidiabetic, antihelminthic, antiseptic, antiviral, and contraceptive activities in various B. aegyptiaca extracts; most studies reported the active compounds to be steroidal saponins. Saponins are naturally occurring glycosidic compounds mainly found in higher plants and some marine species. Saponins are amphiphilic in nature, consisting of a hydrophobic aglycone linked to a hydrophilic sugar moiety. Saponin compounds have shown numerous pharmacological properties including anticarcinogenic activity, i.e., they specifically inhibit the growth of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The pursuit of natural substances capable of controlling malignancies has led to considerable research on this property of saponins. Dioscin, obtained from Dioscorea spp represents one of the most common plant spirostan saponins, and is among the most potent cytotoxic spirostan saponins; however, it is crucial to discover new, alternate, and more potent sources of saponins due to decreasing resources. The PLBL has isolated and elucidated the structure of several new saponins from B. aegyptiaca plant extracts. So far a leading compound, a spirostan saponin (NG =1017) has displayed significant anti-proliferative activity, in comparison to Dioscin, in breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. Significant anti-cancer activity of NG-1017 was also observed in comparison to a well-known anti-cancer agent, Cisplatine, in several human cancer cell lines. Biochemical study with NG-1017 indicated an inhibitory effect on generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We have plan to: (a) isolate and identify additional new saponins from the kernel, mesocarp, and roots of Balanites plants grown in Israel; (b) evaluate in vitro anti-cancer activity of the Balanites saponins against human cancer cells lines and assess their structure-activity relationships along with the inhibitory activity of cancer cell invasion and metastasis; (c) examine the intracellular processes of the active analogs on nitric oxide/ROS generation, apoptosis pathway, and cell cycle arrest, compared with that of Dioscin in near future.

Evaluation of production potential of Biodiesel from olive mill wastes and municipal waste sludge
The continuous rise in fossil fuel prices in the past years as a result of the depletion of its resources, as well as environmental concerns, have led to a renewed interest in alternative renewable sources of energy. One of the promising renewable fuels is biodiesel produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. The biodiesel industry, currently dependent on agricultural oil crops, is limited today due to the lack of agricultural lands for growing oil crops along with the competition with food crops. In this scenario two have tried to obtained biodiesel from the two waste products: olive oil mill wastes and municipal waste sledges. Both of them have created environmental problems. With increasing acarage of olives, the mill wastes have been increased tremendously in recent years. Human societies and industries are producing mass quantities of highly pollutant waste as municipal sludge that threatening soil and freshwater resources mainly as a result of the presence of high organic matter content. Both these wastes content large amounts of fats. The PLBL has focused on the evaluation of the production potential of biodiesel from these two waste products which ultimately help not only as an alternate source of energy but also reduce the environmental pollutions.

Development of a Low Resolution NMR System as a Wide Selection Tool of Oilseeds for the Biodiesel Industry
Biodiesel has shown to be an alternative for the petro-diesel fuel and that can significantly reduce the exhaust gases from petroleum-fuelled engines and more it is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. Yet there are remaining challenges: its cost and limited availability of fat and oil resources has hindering the application of biodiesel. There are two biodiesel cost aspects: the costs of raw material (fats and oils) and the cost of processing the cost of biodiesel fuels varies depending on the base stock, geographic area, variability in crop production from season to season, the price of the crude petroleum and other factors. The high price of biodiesel is in large part due to the high price of the feedstock. The nature of the oilseed components ultimately determines the biodiesel properties. To achieve standardized biodiesel along with a profitable one, high yield and high quality oilseeds are necessary. For this a systematic cost effective analysis is needed. The PLBL is currently working to develop a wide selection tool using low resolution NMR method to select intact oilseeds, oil and biodiesel based on their quantity and quality properties in a rapid and automated manner for a sustainable biodiesel industry.

Development of Large Scale LR-NMR Screening Technology of Intact Castor Seeds and Optimization of Castor Biodiesel Production
Castor is a crop which produced non-edible oil. Castor plant grows wild in large quantities in most tropical and sub-tropical countries. Castor is highly adapted to thrive under low rainfall and marginal soil fertility. Under very favorable conditions it can yield 4-5 ton/ha of seeds which contain about ca. 46-55 wt % oil content. In spite of these positive attributes caster has merely less than 0.15% share in the international oilseed trade. Castor oil has significantly different characters then other common vegetable oils like: indigestibility and solubility in alcohol; a very high viscosity along with high content of ricinoleic acid comprising more than 80% of the FA composition which hindering the biodiesel production process. PLBL is developing a LR-NMR based large scale screening technology for castor seeds selection and to optimize the castor biodiesel process. This study will help diminish the environmental impact caused by conventional biodiesel production by using industrial engineering tools.

Sequence of Physicochemical & Membrane Treatment of Olive Oil Mill Waste Water (OMW)
With increasing heath awareness along with the consumption the production of olive oils has been increased tremendous in recent years then before. The olive oil mills not only produced the fine oils but also the waste water which has made significant environmental pollution. Due to the variety of constituents found in OMW, more than one conventional treatment technology needs to be employed. PLBL has recently initiated a study that characterize and treatment of OMW using membrane processes technology. The greatest problem in membrane filtration of OMW is membrane fouling that drastically reduces the efficiency of permeation and also changes its selectivity. In this case, a pre-treatment step is necessary to decrease membrane fouling and to increase filtration efficiency. For this reason, first of all chemical pretreatment and physical (centrifuging) steps were applied (pH adjustment to acidic values), than filtered through ultrafiltration and/or nanofiltration flat-sheet membrane system in a stirred cell module. The main goal of this work is to check the feasibility of using ultrafiltration/nanofiltration process to remove COD & phenol concentration to a level that will allow sending permeate stream to municipal waste water treatment plants.

Selection of the Best Pomegranate and Olive Clones for the Negev Desert
Pomegranate (Puninca granatum) and olive (Oliea europea) have been grown in Israel for thousands of years. Traditionally olive trees are grown in the north and central part of the country however due to the limitation of the cultivated land due to the increasing population recently interest has been shown to shift the olive plantation in the south mainly Negev desert. PLBL has been initiated a long term research study to select the best olive varieties for the Negev desert not only from the locally grown Middle Eastern varieties but also from the collections from varieties grown around the all Mediterranean regions and also from the central Asia. Similarly selection of the best pomegranate verities with emphasis on early maturity and good taste has been carried out in PLB from a collection of at least one hundreds clones from Israel and Central Asia.

Past Projects:

Characterization of the olive oil quality produced in Negev desert irrigated three different level of irrigation water
Although it is known that olive trees can survive when irrigated with saline water, sustainability, long-term productivity and, most importantly, the quality of the fruits and the oil have not been studied. Since the genetic characteristics of olive varieties and the response of the different varieties to environmental conditions dominate the performance of the trees and the quality of the oil, the work on PLBL research group was devoted to examining these aspects of olive cultivation. We have established three experimental olive plots at the Ramat Negev Experimental Station with three level of saline water namely: 1.2, 4.2 and 7.2 dS/m. The results showed that olive tree can be cultivated in desert condition with special irrigation technology called leaching practice up to 7.2 dS/m salinity level with out significantly reduced the yield loss. Best results can be obtained from medium saline irrigation. Results clearly shown that some oil quality parameters were found better in high saline irrigation level compared to the fresh water irrigation (Results have already published in international journals and BOOK :Olive oil cultivation in Desert: advanced biotechnologies).

Evaluation of Balatnites aegyptiaca (Desert date) as a sustainable bioresource for desert
PLBL started working on Balanites tree some 14 years ago together with Prof. D. Pasternak, the then Head of the Institute for Agriculture & Applied Biology at the Institutes for Applied Research. Survey was carried out in Israel (Arava and Jordan valley) and subsequently-with the assistance of a network-in India and Africa. Germplasm from surveyed places were collected and subsequently planted in Kibutz Samar of the Southern Israel in the Arava valley 30 km north of the Red cost of Elat. Another collection plot has also established in the Western part of the country on the site of the Mediterranean Sea, Nitzanim. Balanites plants which are irrigated with recycled water from Eilat, are developing extremely well in comparison with plants planted in the north of the country. Systematic horticultural evaluation has performed. The results have clearly pointed out that Balanites can intensively grow in marginal land with effluent water in comparatively more drier areas. The preliminary report shows that African genotypes are better than the Israeli. The evaluation report clearly shows the potentiality of Balanites tree for desert trees. The detailed of the study has already been published in the scientific journals.

Identification and characterization of specific bioactive saponin compounds from desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) trees intensively cultivated in the southern Negev desert
In a detail study so far twenty three saponin compounds have been isolated from the fruit mesocarp, kernel and root extracts of the Balanites plant grown in the Negev desert. The structural elucidation of most of these saponins are already been accomplished using MS (LC-ESI/MS and MALDI-TOF/MS) and High Resolution NMR (800 MHs) and the work is still continue. These saponins extracts were found as steroidal and furustanol nature and as natural surfactants. The study of biological activities showed larvicidal, anti microbial, and anti fungal activities of these saponins. All these reports are well documented in the internationally published journals.

Other past projects
  • Chemical and ethnobotanical characterization of wild shea populations, growing across the Sahel region of Africa, with special reference to Shea butter, a commodity in high demand for the food and cosmetic industries
  • Development of CRDS Adjuvant for soil-applied hormone-fertilizer formulations that stimulate root formation and development
  • Development of CRDS Adjuvant for insect growth regulators (IGR) applied to water bodies for controlling mosquitoes
  • Development of CRDS Adjuvant based on lipopolysaccharide formulations for long-lasting foliar delivery of agromaterials through the plant cuticle membrane
  • Development of foliar CRDS coated plant nutrients and protective productsNovel cationic vesicle platform derived from vernonia oil for efficient delivery of DNA through plant cuticle membranes




  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev P.O.Box 653, Beer-sheva 84105
    Department of Biotechnology Engineering