Bulgarian Scientists Develop Nutritional Supplements to Combat Various Diseases
Within four years scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will create nutritional supplements to help treat various diseases. Because of this they are currently doing research on different natural resources and plants.
The activities are set out in the National Science Program "Innovative Low-Toxic Biologically Active Means for Precision Medicine", financed by the Ministry of Education and Science.
"The aim of this program was to use the rich natural resources that our country has to isolate biologically active substances that we purify. The developed products will be tested for neurodegenerative, antiviral, anti-tumor and regenerative properties, "Prof. Pavlina Dulaskova told BGS.
The more interesting products are the Black Sea rapana, the snail, the Black Sea crab, which are delicacies, but we have not selected them only because they are delicatessen but because they contain these biologically active substances, she added.
Prof. Iva Ugrinova, who is the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and the head of one of the eight packages included in the program, said that their big dream is to create a medicinal product, but at this stage their goal is to create ingredients with the status of food additives. She announced they had started working on the program two months ago and are already working.
"We have received encouraging results related to the biological activity of a substance derived from the cannabis plant. Here I rush to distinguish the ingredient with which we work from this ingredient, which has psychotropic action. We are not working with it. They are two different substances. The results show that this substance has a very high anti-tumor activity. We want to learn the mechanisms and understand what this is due to, "said Prof. Ugrinova and added that they already have results from the studied extracts of the Black Sea rapana and the snail.
"We also found some substances that have good biological activity. Our next step is to make a combination of these ingredients to find an even more perfect combination with even higher activity with low concentrations, "she said, and added their dream was to get a drug, but it takes about 15 years, and they do not have such time and funding.
"We have been focusing on products that have the status of a dietary supplement. We do a lot of research, so I can not say exactly what we'll find out. There may be an add-on to boost the immune system, something that slows down neurodegenerative processes, something that can help anti-tumor therapy, "said Prof. Ugrinova.