Power of Plants wins audience award

Health Food Wall emerged as the winner of the 5th Top Sector Horticulture & Starting Materials (T&U) Innovation Prize, featuring smart refrigerators that offer healthy, sustainable takeaway meals. Power of Plants secured the audience award. The award ceremony took place during the T&U Innovation Day in Wageningen.

Power of Plants is an initiative in which horticultural companies and research institutions collaborate to select plants with medicinal properties. The ultimate goal is to create extracts that can be used as medicine or antibiotics.

Utilizing Agri-Sector Residual and By-Products for Medicines

Leaves, stems, roots: the Dutch agricultural sector generates approximately 9.5 megatons of residual and by-products annually. Wouldn't it be great to harness the plant compounds from these residues for healthcare? With this objective in mind, a transdisciplinary collaboration emerged, involving institutions such as Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Leiden University of Applied Sciences, both affiliated with the Medical Delta Living Lab Integrative Medicine Technology.

Within the research lines of 'Infectious Diseases and Antibiotic Resistance' and 'Chronic Diseases and Common Complaints,' both universities, along with Erasmus MC, Leiden University, and various growers and companies from the agricultural sector, developed methods to screen plant extracts for antimicrobial and antitumor effects. The active plant compounds are identified from the bioactive extracts.

The audience award includes guidance from a T&U innovation broker and participation in the HortiHeroes Startup Program, providing access to networks, knowledge, and facilities through HortiHeroes and the World Horti Center.

Read more about the T&U Innovation Prize here
Read more about the research project here