We warmly congratulate Nina Stadler on the publication of her latest paper in Green Chemistry! The study, funded by the BioSC project ToxPot, shows how plant by-products can be used as a source of valuable natural substances without competing with food production.
The focus of the study was on the extraction of the steroidal glycoalkaloids α-chaconine and α-solanine from potato material. In addition to the successful extraction, Nina also describes the environmental impact by calculating the E-factor – a measure of the ecological efficiency of chemical processes. The use of green solvents significantly improved the sustainability of the extraction process.
Furthermore, the study offers a direct comparison between natural product extraction and semisynthetic production from diosgenin, transparently contrasting the respective advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.
With this publication, Nina makes an important contribution to the further development of sustainable processes in natural product chemistry – we are very proud and congratulate her on this success in Green Chemistry!
The publication is online available.