The yellow-orange miracle from the tropics

Besides animals and plants, they are considered a separate group of organisms. For the ecosystem to function in for example forests, fungi play an irreplaceable role. They convert deceased plant and animal substances into nutrients, which are then passed on to the soil and in turn absorbed by living organisms. Fungi have intrigued humankind for thousands of years and, despite their functional diversity and fascinating existence, are often overlooked and left unexplored. Not without reason, it is assumed that about 1.5 million species of fungi remain undiscovered.

The IMD Natural Solutions building in Dortmund certainly doesn't look like a fungus farm at first glance - a rather inconspicuous office building with a facade of stone and glass. Although this would be a much more amusing view. And yet: Here, Jens Bitzer and his team are doing research on the tropical fungus and developed the sensational product "Nagardo^®".

The so-called "master cell database", i.e. the original fungus, lies at the bottom of a nitrogen-filled kettle in a yellowish-milky liquid. Batches are separated from it for production and further processed. Bitzer recalls that the fungus sometimes gave the team a hard time: "In order for it to produce exactly the substance from which we can later extract our active ingredient, we have to create very special conditions. We spent several years working on this alone.”

Behind the success story of Nagardo^®, which was first approved in North America in 2018, is a total of more than ten years of development work. The product finds its start in a screening library with around 100,000 other natural substances and extracts in search of an active ingredient from which the first natural preservative can be produced. And this is where the small yellow-orange fungus proves its power and prevails. Impressed by its effect against yeasts, moulds and bacteria, Bitzer reports, "we immediately had the feeling that we had scored a direct hit.

Because the aim was for the process to be purely natural, i.e. without the use of certain chemical substances or changing the structure of the molecule, cultivating the fungus and setting up the production process proved to be complex at the beginning. "That's why solvents, for example, were taboo, and it was also clear that we didn't want to genetically optimize the mushroom strain," explains Janmarc Heitmann, head of the Beverage Technology business line in the MPP BU, to which the Dortmund team belongs. So the production process goes as follows: filtering, acidifying, washing, neutralising, drying - that's how the powder is created.

And how is it then added to the drink? Because the dosage varies depending on the beverage, samples arrive from all over the world on a daily basis. "We adjust the dosage individually to each beverage formulation," explains laboratory employee Malte Aplienz. More than 1,000 beverage samples have already gone through the analysis process.

But some drinks are a challenge to the beverage specialists; they are more difficult to preserve than others. "Asian ice teas in particular are difficult," Aplienz reports. Fortunately, his colleagues and he have a trick up their sleeve: the combination of Nagardo^® and Velcorin^®. This is exceptionally efficient and produces a synergistic effect. "Around 90 percent of our Nagardo^® customers use both products," Heitmann reports. "The synergy effect has enabled us to achieve many improvements. For example, drinks could be taken out of the cold chain." And the demand is increasing. Not only the refined effect of the product, but also the trend towards healthy lifestyle products are beneficial. Among other reasons, Nagardo^® can enable beverage manufacturers to use popular “natural claims”. It has been proven that glycolipids have an effectiveness that only nature can offer - compared to the synthetic preservatives commonly used, a dosage up to 50 times lower is sufficient.

The team around Nagardo^® is part of the market segment Natural Antimicrobials. Besides the colleagues in Dortmund a large team is currently working on the global rollout and approval in other countries. As a result, drinks such as an Inca-Cola from Mexico and a Peruvian soft drink made from purple maize now fill Aplienz's laboratory fridge. In addition, the market segment is exploring further possible applications for Nagardo^®. "The food sector in particular is of course exciting for us," Heitmann is sure that there will soon be more news around the orange mushroom.

Nagardo^®