Medicinal and aromatic plants are one of Bulgaria’s most under-used scientific assets, and one of the hardest to turn into an actual product. BIORESOURCES Centre of Competence, based in Sofia and built on the combined infrastructure of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Agricultural Academy, and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” exists to close that gap: from raw plant material to a characterized ingredient, a validated formulation, or a laboratory prototype ready for the next stage of development.
Medicinal and aromatic plants are a valuable source of natural compounds with potential applications across the nutraceutical, cosmetic, food, pharmaceutical, and broader bio-based industries. But identifying a promising plant or demonstrating an interesting lab effect is not the same as creating a viable product.
Between the initial bioresource and a working prototype sits a long, technical process. The raw material has to be selected and characterized. Relevant compounds have to be extracted and isolated. Their composition, properties, and biological activity have to be analysed. The strongest candidates then have to be formulated, characterized, and turned into prototypes that can support further development.
In practice, these capabilities rarely sit in one place. A business may have a strong product idea but no access to the right laboratory infrastructure. A research team may have a genuinely promising discovery but lack the formulation or biological-testing capacity to take it further. That fragmentation adds time, cost, and risk – and it’s exactly the gap the BIORESOURCES Centre of Competence was built to close.
BIORESOURCES supports businesses and research organizations developing bio-based products from medicinal and aromatic plants, combining scientific expertise, laboratory infrastructure, and specialized development capabilities into one connected pathway – from selecting the raw bioresource to a validated formulation or laboratory prototype.
Its real value isn’t any single analysis in isolation. It’s helping an organization work through the sequence of questions every development project eventually has to answer:
Answering these in sequence, rather than in isolation, is what turns raw scientific knowledge into a structured, application-oriented development path.
BIORESOURCES supports the full development pathway across six stages:
These stages form one connected process, but no project has to go through all six. Some organizations start with a plant or biological resource that needs initial evaluation. Others already have an extract, an active ingredient, a scientific result, or an early formulation that needs further testing or development. Either way, the Centre’s experts help identify the existing evidence, the remaining unknowns, and the most useful next step.
Every product starts with the quality and suitability of its starting material. This stage covers identifying, selecting, and evaluating medicinal and aromatic plants and other biological resources – including plant selection, in vitro propagation and micropropagation, genetic and molecular marker-based selection, comparative assessment, or the investigation of agricultural by-products as a source of valuable compounds.
Plant species, growing conditions, harvesting, storage, and processing can all shift the composition and properties of the final material. Understanding those variables early improves consistency and reproducibility for every stage that follows, and answers the most basic question in the whole pathway: are we starting with the right raw material?
Once the raw material is confirmed, the next step is isolating the compounds or fractions relevant to the intended application. BIORESOURCES supports extraction, separation, isolation, and purification of bioactive natural compounds, comparing methods and process conditions to see how each affects composition, yield, quality, and potential biological activity.
BIORESOURCES supports extraction, separation, isolation, and purification of bioactive natural compounds, applying green chemistry approaches and environmentally sustainable technologies. Different methods and process conditions are compared to evaluate their effects on composition, yield, quality, and potential biological activity, with a focus on resource efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and sustainable processing.
The goal isn’t just an extract – it’s a sufficiently controlled, reproducible material that can be analysed, compared, tested, and carried into a formulation. This stage is the bridge between the original biological resource and a defined development candidate.
Knowing where a material comes from isn’t the same as knowing what it contains and how it behaves. BIORESOURCES provides chemical, physicochemical, genetic, molecular, and metabolomic analysis, including HPLC and LC-MS-based profiling, to characterize raw materials, extracts, isolated compounds, synthetic analogues, advanced materials, and formulations.
BIORESOURCES provides comprehensive chemical, physicochemical, genetic, molecular, and metabolomic analysis – employing advanced analytical techniques such as HPLC, LC-MS-based profiling, gas chromatography (GC), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for the detailed characterization of raw materials, extracts, isolated compounds, synthetic analogues, advanced materials, and formulations.
Depending on the project, this stage can identify relevant compounds, compare plants or processing methods, determine physicochemical properties, assess composition and purity, establish analytical specifications, or investigate how composition relates to biological activity. It replaces assumptions with measurable evidence – the information a business or research team needs to select the strongest candidates and make better-informed investment decisions.
A compound can be chemically interesting and still be a dead end if it doesn’t produce the expected biological effect. BIORESOURCES assesses biological activity through microbiological, virological, cellular, and molecular methods, including cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, antimicrobial, antiviral, and antioxidant activity testing, chosen according to the material, the scientific hypothesis, and the intended application.
BIORESOURCES assesses biological activity through microbiological, virological, cellular, molecular, and in vivo approaches, including cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory activity and antioxidant activity testing, as well as in vivo evaluation of biological effects, efficacy, and safety, with methods and experimental models selected according to the nature of the material, the scientific hypothesis, and the intended application.
This is where candidates get compared, mechanisms get investigated, and promising concentrations get identified, sometimes alongside a preliminary look at safety-related properties. It’s the stage that lets a project team prioritize what’s actually worth advancing, rather than what merely looked promising on paper.
Validated activity is a real milestone but an active ingredient still isn’t a product. It has to be incorporated into a formulation that’s stable, usable, and fit for its intended application.
BIORESOURCES supports formulation development, characterization, performance assessment, and laboratory prototyping, including nutraceutical and cosmetic formulations, polymer-enhanced delivery systems, and emulsions, gels, or powders, as well as plant-based products, novel materials, and concepts with potential pharmaceutical applications. Work at this stage can include choosing a formulation approach, incorporating actives into a delivery system, optimizing composition, characterization and quality assessment, stability and performance testing, preliminary safety evaluation, and building the laboratory prototype itself.
This is where the science starts taking tangible shape – the output is a formulation or prototype that can support scale-up, regulatory planning, industrial development, or a manufacturing partnership.
None of the above generates full value without a clear development strategy connecting it. BIORESOURCES provides scientific and technical consulting throughout the pathway, helping organizations define objectives, choose methods, interpret results, and decide what comes next.
That support can include project scoping and experimental planning, choosing the right lab and analytical methods, interpreting results, coordinating across complementary research capabilities, IP guidance, and input on market, financial, legal, and commercialization considerations. It isn’t the final step tacked onto the end – it runs alongside the entire pathway, making sure every experiment ties back to an actual decision.
Through these connected capabilities, BIORESOURCES helps turn a promising bioresource or scientific idea into: characterized plant materials and biological resources; natural extracts and isolated compounds; validated bioactive ingredients; analytical and biological evidence; nutraceutical and cosmetic formulations; food and other bio-based product concepts; formulations and materials with potential pharmaceutical applications; laboratory prototypes; and development plans for further validation, scale-up, regulatory work, or commercialization.
The Centre doesn’t replace industrial manufacturing, or the regulatory processes required to get a finished product to market – it builds the scientific and technical foundation that makes those next stages faster and less uncertain.
Building every one of these scientific capabilities in-house is costly and, for most startups and even established companies, simply impractical. BIORESOURCES gives businesses access to specialized infrastructure and multidisciplinary expertise without having to build separate relationships with half a dozen disconnected laboratories.
That can mean assessing a product idea before committing to a bigger investment, reaching capabilities you don’t have internally, generating evidence to choose the strongest development candidate, troubleshooting an extraction, analysis, or formulation problem, strengthening the scientific credibility of a product concept, or simply reducing uncertainty across the whole process.
Some businesses arrive with a clearly defined product brief. Others start with a much broader question: “We have this plant, extract, or scientific idea – what can we actually develop from it?” Both are a valid starting point.
A scientific discovery often needs more work, and a more application-oriented plan, before it generates value beyond the lab. BIORESOURCES helps research organizations connect fundamental and applied science with potential industrial use, giving researchers access to complementary analyses, biological models, formulation capabilities, and expert support.
That collaboration can validate and extend existing findings, test practical applications, produce proof-of-concept formulations or prototypes, identify potential industrial partners, surface IP opportunities, and prepare research outcomes for technology transfer or commercialization – building a real bridge between academic excellence and practical application.
The value of BIORESOURCES goes beyond any single project. Sustainable use of medicinal and aromatic plants can generate new scientific knowledge, higher-value economic activity, more effective use of biological resources, and genuinely new products built on renewable natural materials.
By combining expertise from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Agricultural Academy, and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, BIORESOURCES creates a multidisciplinary environment spanning plant biotechnology, molecular genetics, metabolomics, organic chemistry, phytochemistry, biology, pharmacy, materials science, and product development – in service of a wider goal: strengthening the connection between Bulgaria’s natural resources, scientific talent, and innovation-driven business.
Working with BIORESOURCES starts with the project, not with a fixed package of lab services:
You don’t need to show up with a fully developed research programme. BIORESOURCES can help define the scientific questions that need answering and structure the right pathway from there.
A valuable plant, natural compound, or scientific discovery is potential. Realizing it takes coordinated expertise, reliable evidence, advanced infrastructure, and a clear path from one decision to the next – which is exactly what BIORESOURCES brings together.
Whether a project starts with a raw material, an extract, a research finding, or an early product idea, the Centre can help move it toward a characterized ingredient, a validated formulation, or a laboratory prototype for nutraceutical, cosmetic, food, and potential pharmaceutical applications.
BIORESOURCES Centre of Competence is supported under Project BG16RFPR002-1.014-0001, “Sustainable Utilization of Bioresources from Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for Innovative Products” (BIORESOURCES BG), funded by the Programme “Research, Innovation and Digitalisation for Smart Transformation” and co-funded by the European Union.
Do you have a bioresource, scientific discovery, or product idea with development potential?
BIORESOURCES Center of Competence to discuss where your project stands, what still needs answering, and the most appropriate next step.
Projects involving medicinal and aromatic plants, natural extracts, bioactive compounds, nutraceutical and cosmetic formulations, food-related applications, advanced materials, and concepts with potential pharmaceutical applications.
No. A project can start with a plant or other bioresource, an extract, an active compound, a scientific result, an early formulation, or a specific technical challenge. BIORESOURCES helps assess the current stage and define next steps.
No. The full pathway is available, but every collaboration is adapted to the project. Organizations can enter at whichever stage is most relevant and use one capability or several connected stages.
Yes, including selection, propagation, genetic and molecular analysis, and comparative evaluation of medicinal and aromatic plants and other biological resources.
Yes. BIORESOURCES supports extraction, isolation, purification, analysis, and characterization; the exact approach depends on the raw material, the scientific objective, and the intended application.
Through microbiological, virological, cellular, molecular, in vivo models and other relevant experimental methods, with the testing strategy designed around the material and the biological effect under investigation.
BIORESOURCES supports ingredient validation, formulation development, characterization, safety-related evaluation, and laboratory prototyping for nutraceutical and cosmetic applications. Industrial manufacturing, regulatory compliance, and market launch remain separate, later stages.
The Centre can contribute research, analytical characterization, biological assessment, formulation work, and laboratory prototypes with potential pharmaceutical applications. That’s not the same as an authorized medicinal product – pharmaceutical development still requires additional preclinical, clinical, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory work.
No. The Centre focuses on research, analysis, validation, formulation, and laboratory prototyping. Industrial scale-up and commercial manufacturing require additional development and an appropriate manufacturing partner.
Expert support can include guidance on intellectual property, market potential, legal and financial considerations, and commercialization pathways, scoped to the specific project and organizations involved.
Startups, established businesses, universities, research institutes, scientific teams, agricultural organizations, cosmetics and nutraceutical companies, food producers, biotechnology companies, and pharmaceutical organizations.
With an initial discussion about the bioresource, scientific idea, product concept, available evidence, and intended application. From there, BIORESOURCES experts help identify the most relevant capabilities and propose a development plan.
The Institute for Research Support was established in 2023 as a non-profit association, with a mission to support scientific organisations, startups and organisations developing innovative ideas. It has a multidisciplinary team in the fields of science, marketing, finance, law, intellectual property and more, structuring the entire process of creating a new product or commercialising a scientific development.
The Institute of Polymers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences specialises in the research and development of advanced polymeric materials and technologies with applications in medicine, pharmacy and industry. Within CC BIORESOURCES, its scientific potential contributes to the creation of innovative materials and high-technology solutions.
The Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy (FCP) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” is a leading national centre for education and research in the fields of chemistry, pharmacy and materials science. Within CC BIORESOURCES, FCP participates with leading researchers and scientific infrastructure from the Departments of “Chemical Engineering and Pharmaceutical Engineering” and “Analytical Chemistry”, who specialise in the development and characterisation of innovative products for the cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries. Our research team has a strong orientation towards scientific research addressing fundamental and practical questions, working in active collaboration with researchers from Bulgaria and abroad.
Sofia University (SU) is the largest and most prestigious university in Bulgaria, with 16 faculties, 119 degree programmes and approximately 20,000 students.
The Faculty of Biology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” conducts scientific research in the fields of molecular biology, biotechnology, ecology and biodiversity. The Faculty’s expertise supports the development of sustainable solutions related to bioresources, human health and environmental protection.
Sofia University (SU) is the largest and most prestigious university in Bulgaria, with 16 faculties, 119 degree programmes and approximately 20,000 students.
The AgroBio Institute (ABI) at the Agricultural Academy is one of the leading research institutes in Bulgaria in the fields of plant biotechnology, molecular genetics, metabolomics and the sustainable utilisation of plant genetic resources and agricultural by-products. Within CC BIORESOURCES, ABI contributes its scientific capacity and specialised laboratory infrastructure for the selection and accelerated breeding of medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as the development and implementation of innovative methods and technologies with applications in the bioindustry.
The Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IOCCP – BAS) is a leading scientific organisation in the fields of organic chemistry, phytochemistry and the development of bioactive compounds. The Institute conducts research aimed at the sustainable utilisation of natural resources and the transfer of innovations to business and society.
Институтът за изследователска подкрепа е създаден през 2023 г. като сдружение с нестопанска цел, чиято мисия е да подпомага научни организации, стартиращи компании и организации, развиващи иновативни идеи. Разполага с мултидисциплинарен екип в сферата на науката, маркетинга, финансите, правото, интелектуалната собственост и др., който да структурира цялостното създаване на нов продукт или комерсиализацията на научна разработка.
Институтът по полимери към Българска академия на науките е специализиран в изследванията и разработването на съвременни полимерни материали и технологии с приложение в медицината, фармацията и индустрията. В рамките на ЦК БИОРЕСУРСИ неговият научен потенциал допринася за създаването на иновативни материали и високотехнологични решения.
Факултетът по химия и фармация (ФХФ) към Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“ е водещ национален център за обучение и изследвания в областта на химията, фармацията и материалознанието. В ЦК БИОРЕСУРСИ ФХФ участва с водещи изследователи и научна инфраструктура от катедрите „Инженерна химия и фармацевтично инженерство“ и „Аналитична химия“, които са специализирани в областта на разработването и охарактеризирането на иновационни продукти за козметичната, хранителната и фармацевтичната индустрии. Изследователският ни екип има силна ориентация към научни изследвания, свързани с решаването на фундаментални и практически въпроси, като работи в активно сътрудничество с изследователи от страната и чужбина.
Софийският университет (СУ) е най-големият и най-престижен университет в България с 16 факултета, 119 специалности и обучавани около 20 000 студенти.
Биологическият факултет към Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“ развива научни изследвания в областта на молекулярната биология, биотехнологиите, екологията и биологичното разнообразие. Експертизата на факултета подпомага разработването на устойчиви решения, свързани с биоресурсите, човешкото здраве и опазването на околната среда.
Софийският университет (СУ) е най-големият и най-престижен университет в България с 16 факултета, 119 специалности и обучавани около 20 000 студенти.
АгроБиоИнститут (АБИ) към Селскостопанска академия е един от водещите научноизследователски институти в България в областта на растителните биотехнологии, молекулярната генетика, метаболомиката и устойчивото оползотворяване на растителни генетични ресурси и отпадни продукти от земеделието. В рамките на ЦК БИОРЕСУРСИ АБИ допринася със своя научен капацитет и специализирана лабораторна инфраструктура за отбор и ускорена селекция на медицински и ароматни растения, разработване и внедряване на иновативни методи и технологии с приложение в биоиндустрията.
Институтът по органична химия с център по фитохимия към Българска академия на науките (ИОХЦФ – БАН) е водеща научна организация в областта на органичната химия, фитохимията и разработването на биоактивни съединения. Институтът развива научни изследвания, насочени към устойчивото оползотворяване на природни ресурси и трансфера на иновации към бизнеса и обществото.