Global R&D starts from Xiangjiang River ｜ Lvman Bio： Brewing Sweet Career with the Power of Science and Technology

Every year, we invest tens of millions of R&D expenses to improve the technology and upgrade the technology. Lvman Bio uses scientific and technological strength to brew sweet business. Not only its products are exported to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, but its annual export sales amount to more than 15 million US dollars, and it has become a leading star enterprise in the natural sweetener industry.

Sweet is a kind of taste. Eating sweets contributes to the secretion of dopamine and can bring people a sense of happiness. In Xiangjiang New District, Hunan, Hunan Lvman Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lvman Bio") is an enterprise that deeply cultivates the sweet cause under the blessing of science and technology. Based on the big health industry, through the research and innovation of plant extracts and natural sweeteners, Lvman Bio has produced natural sweeteners such as mogroside, stevioside and natural compound sugar, which are exported to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, and achieved rapid revenue growth for many years.

Take technology as the guide, reduce costs and increase efficiency to seize the market.

"Technology and talents are crucial to the development of enterprises. Without high-level R&D and investment, our road to entrepreneurship will not be so smooth, and it is impossible to win today’s position in the natural sweetener market." Zhang Baotang, chairman of Lvman Bio, told the reporter that as a high-tech enterprise growing up in the new district, Lvman Bio has always paid attention to technical strength and innovation, and attached importance to cooperation with universities and colleges in Industry-University-Research.

"We work closely with Hunan Agricultural University, Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and other professional colleges and universities to accurately cultivate the technical talents needed by the company. Lvman Bio is a high-value patent achievement transformation unit of the National Plant Resources Component Utilization Research Center of Academician Liu Zhonghua. Professor Gong Yushun, as a pit stop expert of the model expert workstation of Lvman Bio in Hunan Province, provided technical support for the company’s new product research and development and quality control. " Zhang Baotang said, "Every year, we will invest about 10 million yuan in R&D funds to carry out technological transformation and optimization in seedling optimization, plant extraction and application expansion of natural sweeteners."

The first product of green vine biology is Siraitia grosvenorii extract. Because of the low content of sweet components in fruit and limited by the technology at that time, the cost of extracted mogrosides is higher than that of sucrose, and it is not dominant in the market. However, the green vine keeps optimizing the seedling and upgrading process, reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency from the whole process of planting, production and sales, and finally the production cost of mogroside 50%MV is greatly reduced, which is cheaper than sucrose when converted into sweetness cost performance.

With the advantages of sweetness, purity, color and cost, Siraitia grosvenorii extract and sweet tea extract of green vine quickly seized the market. "Now, our Siraitia grosvenorii extract has a global market share of about 5%, and the sweet tea extract has a global market share of about 60%. The company’s products are exported to more than 40 countries and regions such as Europe, America, Japan and Southeast Asia." Zhang Baotang said proudly.

Taking scientific research as a breakthrough and expanding the territory of sweet career

Into the green vine biological natural sweetener manufacturing center, all kinds of advanced production equipment such as pure water equipment, reverse osmosis membrane equipment, ceramic membrane equipment and continuous countercurrent extraction unit are dazzling. It is also equipped with the most advanced research and development instruments and testing equipment in the domestic extraction industry, such as high performance liquid detection equipment and gas chromatography.

"R&D is endless. In 2016, we began to try the intelligent transformation of production, and it takes about one month to improve and upgrade the equipment and technology every year. " Zhang Baotang revealed that at present, Lvman Bio has its own advanced technology in removing heavy metals, pesticide residues and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and has applied for more than 70 national invention patents, with 32 authorized invention patents. Among them, the project "Research and Industrialization of Green and Efficient Extraction Technology of Siraitia grosvenorii" has strong technical innovation, ranking the leading level in the same industry in China.

In the green vine, the slogan "One fruit, two leaves, change the sweet cause of mankind" is particularly eye-catching. However, the green vine creatures that started with natural sweeteners did not stop there. "For example, there are not only sweet ingredients in Siraitia grosvenorii, but also other beneficial ingredients. We are studying how to’ squeeze clean’ the value of each Siraitia grosvenorii." Zhang Baotang said with a smile.

Relying on the natural sweetener research institute established by the company, Zhang Baotang led a first-class R&D team including phytochemistry, traditional Chinese medicine, biotechnology and natural medicinal chemistry, and actively participated in R&D work. With their joint efforts, Greenvine has successfully developed more than 240 kinds of standard plant extracts, which can produce as many as 900 kinds of plant extracts, with an annual production capacity of more than 800 tons.

"At present, Lvman Bio has two plant extraction production plants with cGMP (Good Manufacturing Practice for Chinese Herbal Medicine) standards. The second-phase sweetener production project of Hunan Tianman Bio, a wholly-owned subsidiary, is expected to be partially put into production this year. After all the production, our company’s production capacity will be expanded to 5 to 10 times." Zhang Baotang introduced.

With the aim of "serving human health and helping to reduce blood sugar globally", Lvman Bio has completed the whole industrial chain layout of Siraitia grosvenorii and other products from seedlings to dining tables, and is striding forward to become the leading enterprise of natural sweeteners in China.