The Botanical Core will be located and led from Rutgers University (Dr. Raskin – Core Leader) with some work subcontracted to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (Dr. Liu – Core Co-Leader, Dr. Alex Poulev – Co-Investigator). The Botanical Core will facilitate the work of all three Research projects, Animal Core and the Pilot Research Programs by meeting the following aims:

• Greenhouse-based cultivation of source plants and optimization of bioactives production
• Production of botanical therapeutics for the Center’s research, pre-clinical and clinical activities, and pilot research programs
• Activity guided isolation of bioactives and characterization of their interactions
• Analytical and structural chemistry support for the research activities and pre-clinical and clinical studies
• Quality control and botanical authentication including best variety selection and propagation

The Botanical core will also perform research activities dedicated to discovering novel botanical therapeutics that will be studied by the Pilot Research Programs. Reversed Structural Bioinformatics (RSB) and Phytomedicinal Data Mining (PMDM) will be used to identify novel botanical therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of Metabolic Syndrome, in addition to those already listed in the Appendix to the Botanical Core.

The core will operate at the state-of-the-art facilities of the Biotech Center of Rutgers University that is fully equipped to conduct all the activities associated with the Core (see facilities and equipment). Production of most botanicals and their components used by the Center will be performed in the strictly controlled conditions of hydroponic greenhouse cultivation, which assures phytochemical standardization and optimization of the extract. Thus, all materials generated by the Core and distributed to the rest of the Center will be strictly controlled for biochemical uniformity, physical consistency and bioactivity.