SOUTH KOREA – Amorepacific R&D Center, the research arm of South Korea headquartered Amorepacific Group, has opened the Green Tea Probiotics Research Center in Seoul to expand globally competitive microorganism research in green tea as well as its related technologies

With the new research center, Amorepacific seeks to deepen the study of lactobacillus newly found in Jeju organic green tea garden and to continue the development of innovative products in microorganisms and other fields. 

For the past four decades, Amorepacific R&D Center has been conducting research on green tea that lead to the discovery of a green tea probiotic strain; Lactobacillus plantarum (APsulloc)), in 2010.

According to the company, the strain facilitates green tea fermentation, from richly flavored, fermented green tea leaves from green tea grown organically in Jeju Island.

Of particular note, it is found that this newly discovered a probiotic strain survives and persists better in the intestinal tract than conventional strains and has excellent antibacterial, antibiotic resistant property according to genome analysis.

Amorepacific R&D Center collaborated with Professor Dr. Wilhelm Heinrich Holzapfel, one of the world’s most renowned scholars in the field of gut microbiota and published the findings in the SCI-grade journal ‘Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins’ last November.

The joint research also confirmed that the probiotic strain from green tea leaves originally discovered by Amorepacific Group decreases the level of inflammation factors in the stomach.

Amorepacific R&D Center said that it will continue to demonstrate the effects of this probiotic strain and develop innovative products using it in health food, cosmetics and other fields through the new Green Tea Probiotics Research Center.

The group also plans to expand the area of research, specifically into microbiomes, which refer to microorganisms living in the human body and their genetic information.

Meanwhile, Amorepacific R&D Center opened the Anti-pollution Research Center and the Sulwhasoo Herbal Medicinal Science Research Center in 2019 to enhance research competence.