SBIR-STTR Award

Developing Medicinally Used Echinacea Cultivars By Intra- and Inter-Species Hybridization
Award last edited on: 4/28/2014

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
USDA
Total Award Amount
$376,000
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
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Principal Investigator
Xiping Wang

Company Information

Gaia Herbs Inc

101 Gaia Herbs Drive
Brevard, NC 28712
   (828) 884-4242
   info@gaiaherbs.com
   www.gaiaherbs.com
Location: Multiple
Congr. District: 11
County: Transylvania

Phase I

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase I year
2004
Phase I Amount
$80,000
Cultivation of Echinacea has gained worldwide interest in recent years due to its non-specific immunomodulotary activity in humans. It was the top-selling medicinal herb in 2001 and has remained among the top five best-selling herbs for over five years. However, the Echinacea species has not been genetically improved for medicinal use. Current cultivated types of Echinacea were originated from pooled, non-selected seeds from wild sources and therefore are less productive and low in quality. The purpose of this study is to develop Echinacea cultivars which have high biomass yield and high levels of boactive constituents.

Phase II

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase II year
2005
Phase II Amount
$296,000
Cultivation of Echinacea has gained worldwide interest in recent years due to its non-specific immunomodulatory activity in humans. However, Echinacea species have not been genetically improved for medicinal use. This project is to develop genetically improved Echinacea cultivars for medicinal use. The new cultivars will produce higher yield of biomass and bioactive phytochemicals than the types currently cultivated. OBJECTIVES: This research project is to develop cultivars for medicinal use in the two most widely used Echinacea species, E. angustifolia and E. purpurea, by intra- and interspecific hybridization. The work of parental plant selection, propagation, hybridization and establishment of field test experiments has been conducted successfully during the Phase I research. The key tasks in Phase II are to conduct progeny and location tests to progress the cultivar development to field production trial stage and vegetatively propagate selected parental plants for commercial scale seed production. APPROACH: The cultivar development will be by conventional plant breeding methods. A two-step phenotypic selection (morphological and chemical) will be used for initial parental-plant identification. Synthetic cultivars will be our primary target for development. For faster development and more efficient resource utilization, an unreplicated open-pollinated polycross design will be used. Improved genotypes will be advanced rapidly to commercial production, but steady genetic improvement will also be emphasized by progeny tests. The selections after progeny tests will be vegetatively propagated to a large amount by conventional and micropropagation methods to increase total stock for seed production