Herbanol attended the IranPharma Expo 2024, one of the region’s larger exhibitions for the pharmaceutical and health industries, held in Tehran. As the research and development subsidiary of Binalood Golden Oil Company, Herbanol develops natural antioxidants for edible oils and cosmetics, and the expo gave us a focused opportunity to study the processes, equipment, and partnerships that bear on that work as our research advances.
Extraction Technologies
Much of our attention went to extraction. The way an antioxidant is drawn from a plant decides how much of the active compound survives the process and how clean the final ingredient is, so the method matters as much as the source. We looked closely at approaches such as supercritical fluid extraction, which uses pressurized carbon dioxide in place of organic solvents and is gentle on heat-sensitive compounds, and enzyme-assisted processes, which break down plant cell walls under mild conditions to release more of the target compounds. Both can raise yield and quality while reducing the solvent use and energy demand of conventional methods.
These priorities sit at the center of our work, and we discuss them in more depth in our companion post on innovative extraction techniques. Alongside the core methods, we reviewed equipment and process designs aimed at cutting waste and energy use, which fits our focus on clean-label, plant-based ingredients.
Several of those designs were on the floor in working form. We looked over rotary evaporators and jacketed glass reactors of the kind used to concentrate and purify plant extracts under gentle heat, along with larger stainless bioreactors and processing skids built to scale a method up from the bench. The analytical side mattered just as much: the chromatography systems on display are the instruments that confirm how much of a target antioxidant an extract actually holds and whether it stays stable over time, the same checks our own work relies on. Seeing extraction and measurement equipment side by side was a useful reminder that a natural antioxidant is only as good as the process that produces it and the testing that proves it.
Industry Connections
An exhibition on this scale is as much about people as it is about machinery. We met manufacturers, suppliers, and researchers from across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, and used those conversations to understand where the field is heading and where Herbanol might collaborate. For a company at our stage, relationships with equipment suppliers, contract laboratories, and research institutions are practical building blocks: they shape what we can test, how quickly we can refine our methods, and how we will eventually scale production of antioxidants for cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and functional foods.
Market Insights
The expo also gave us a clearer read on demand. Across the pharmaceutical and natural-products stands, the same theme recurred: buyers and formulators want ingredients that are effective, sustainably produced, and backed by clear sourcing. That direction matches what Herbanol is building, and it strengthens the case for natural antioxidants as an alternative to the synthetic stabilizers still common in edible oils and skincare.
We came away from IranPharma with a sharper view of the technologies and partnerships that will shape our next steps. We will fold what we learned into our ongoing R&D on natural antioxidants for edible oils and cosmetics. For more from Herbanol, see our News & Insights.
