Dr. Fabricio Medina-Bolivar,

Plant Metabolic Engineering, ABI/Department of Biological Sciences, and colleague Dr. Danielle Julie Carrier, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (UAF), produced the peer-reviewed paper, "Purification of resveratrol, arachidin-1, and arachidin-3 from hairy root cultures of peanut and determination of their antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity." The study was published in the journal Biotechnology Progress. The paper is based on the research of Dr. Medina-Bolivar, and first author in the study is master's degree student Julie A. Abbott of UAF. The work focuses on the application of a novel purification method to obtain pilot scale quantities of arachidin-1 and arachidin-3 produced in hairy root cultures developed at the Medina-Bolivar laboratory. Arachidin-1 and arachidin-3 are natural resveratrol analogues that are particularly valuable due to their chemical properties and potential applications in drug discovery. These compounds are not commercially available. Earlier this year, Dr. Medina-Bolivar and his research team received a U.S. patent covering the bioproduction of these compounds. With the technology described in this paper, these compounds are now being purified at sufficient quantities and tested in neuroprotective and anticancer bioassays. This collaborative research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Arkansas-EPSCoR P3 Center for Plant-Powered Production.