PhenoLabCom

This LabCom associates UMR IATE's OpenMind team with the Antofénol company to lead the innovation effort needed to create biocontrol products based on phenolic compounds eco-extracted from plants, with very low toxicity for humans and which remain biodegradable. They are designed to control pathogens during the development of cultivated plants and during the post-harvest preservation of fruit and vegetables, as an alternative to phytosanitary products from the petroleum industry. LabCom's strategy will involve combining plant extracts active on microorganisms to reach different cellular targets, or the same target via complementary modes of action. Vectorization and formulation of these active ingredients using innovative pharmaceutical technologies will enable them to be protected, accumulated on organ surfaces and delivered to their targets in the right quantities. LabCom will select phenolic compounds known to be antifungal, but not yet approved for biocontrol. In the absence of a suitable formulation, these compounds are generally less effective than synthetic chemical products, and are not easily patentable. Without appropriate extraction and purification processes, they remain expensive to obtain in quantity. Building on our experience in the use of stilbenoids from grapevine wood as antifungal agents applicable to a variety of pathosystems, we will explore other edible plants with very low levels of compounds toxic to humans and the environment, and which produce compounds from other phenolic families known to be antifungal. We will verify that their industrial eco-extraction by a prototype combining several biophysical techniques does not generate toxic species, using analytical tools and biological tests. We will then quantify the antifungal activity of the main compounds in each extract for an existing mycotheque, before assessing their synergistic efficacy when extracts from different plants are combined. Within a botanical genus, many species synthesize monomers with low antifungal activity, which only a few plant species chemically functionalize into highly active compounds, often in very low proportions. If necessary, we will optimize the efficiency of the fractions by final chemical functionalizations (methylation, hydroxylation, esterification with a lipid), which enrich the eco-extracted fractions with the most active natural compounds. The combination of fractions will then be protected in micro-vectors to target selected cellular functions, then formulated for easy spray application. Vectorization and formulation condition the antifungal performance and adoption of biocontrol products. This LabCom aims to finalize the development of a first antifungal hydrogel by the end of 2025 (TRL5), in order to submit a registration dossier to the European Union in 2028 (5th year). This hydrogel will be enriched with complementary phenolic fractions adapted to other pathosystems to diversify a range of biocontrol antifungals.