In the Mediterranean region, the processing of olives creates more than 30.000.000 tons of by-products such as solid olive residues, washing water and leaves each year. Due to the high percentage of phenolic compounds these residues constitute a substantial environmental burden, especially in terms of pollution of surface and groundwater as well as of agricultural land.

The DBU project “Olé Olive” aims at the use of these phenolic compounds in natural, functional and value added skin care products. The extraction of the compounds from the residues necessitates biotechnological methods. N-Zyme BioTec makes use of biochemical transformations that occur randomly during the production of olive oil or table olives and succeeded in inducing these transformations systematically and under standard process conditions.

In addition to its potential as a natural preservative, the activated ingredients show additional very interesting features. As natural cross-linking molecules they can add to stabilization, modification and functionalization of bio-polymers such as proteins and carbohydrates and can therefore be used for the production of various organic structures and scaffolds for different applications. The main focus of N-Zyme BioTec lies on the production and modification of new bio-materials for bio-medical applications, bio-plastics and the production of innovative high-quality eco-leather.

Project Operation
N-Zyme BioTec GmbH
Dr. Jens Zotzel
Telefon 06151|3912765
zotzel@n-zyme.de
www.n-zyme.de

Cooperation Partners
Universität Hamburg, Institut für Biochemie
www.chemie.uni-hamburg.de

Biozoon GmbH
www.biozoon.de

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