Medical herbs for organic cosmetics to grow on smart VF

iFarm has completed work on Capsum's cutting-edge farm-laboratory, a joint project announced in late 2021. Situated within the company's existing Research & Development site at its Marseille plant, the laboratory enables Capsum's scientists to cultivate their own high-quality ingredients for new cosmetic formulas.

Using iFarm technologies for vertical farming, Capsum will grow a range of crops, including microgreens and flowers. The research farm is controlled by iFarm Growtune software, giving Capsum the requisite tools and data to optimize plant growth.

"Indoor growing is perfect for the beauty industry, as it allows us to cultivate in a fully controlled environment free from pesticides and any harmful chemicals. iFarm's technology fits the needs of our researchers, since they are able to vary a wide range of parameters," said CEO of Capsum Anthony Briot.

The pilot laboratory consists of the automation control system, and three growing rooms with experimental racks based on Ebb-and-Flow hydroponics technology. This set-up allows Capsum to conduct experiments, test new plant varieties and streamline its supply chain with pesticide-free cosmetics ingredients being grown on-site.

Microgreens are one of the plant types used in Capsum's organic cosmetics, and they are currently researching innovative extraction methods. The research process is long and intricate, but all the technology needed to continue production and R&D year-round is already in place.

The potential benefits of indoor farming for innovative cosmetics companies go beyond the laboratory setting. "With iFarm, clients can start with an R&D project and then scale it up to industrial production of herbs, flowers and microgreens, with full hardware and software support along the way. A crop that is stable and predictable year-round, as well as guaranteed to be free from any potential contamination by pesticides or other harmful chemicals, would be also beneficial for larger production volumes," said iFarm's VP of sales Timo Koljonen.

Capsum — is a large research and production start-up founded in 2008 in Marseille (France). The key direction of the company is the research, development and manufacturing of microfluidic cosmetics for skin care. Microfluidics is a branch of science that studies fluid management at a microscopic level. Thanks to this revolutionary technology, Capsum creates cosmetics that are highly penetrating and, therefore, more effective than conventional cosmetics.

iFarm — is a technology development company for IT-driven plant growth in a controlled environment. Founded in 2017 with headquarters in Helsinki (Finland), iFarm has operational and in-construction farms in Europe, the Middle East, and the CIS. One of the company's products is Growtune, a cloud-based IT platform that provides automated climate control to optimise growing conditions for fast and abundant crop maturation on vertical farms.

Source: HortiBiz