Herbal Extraction Plants

Chaste Berry Extract

Purity Levels

2% Agnuside by HPLC

Mechotech designs and manufactures turnkey herbal extraction plants for Chaste Berry (Vitex agnus-castus), standardised to 2% Agnuside by HPLC. Agnuside is an iridoid glycoside concentrated in the dried fruit (berry) of the chaste tree and is the established marker compound behind chaste berry's long-standing women's-health nutraceutical category. We supply the complete machinery — berry cleaning, milling, hydro-alcoholic extraction, filtration, vacuum concentration, closed-loop solvent recovery, HPLC-verified standardisation and drying — to process chaste berry fruit into a consistent extract for the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and functional-supplement industries.

Mechotech's Chaste Berry Extract plant is engineered around the specific chemistry of agnuside, an iridoid glycoside that requires a controlled hydro-alcoholic solvent system to achieve efficient, consistent recovery from the fruit's outer pericarp and seed tissue without degrading the glycosidic bond. Because agnuside occurs in the berry alongside other iridoid glycosides and flavonoid compounds at comparatively low concentration, the extraction and concentration stages are tuned to maximise yield of the total iridoid fraction ahead of HPLC-guided standardisation to the declared marker level. Built in SS 316L with electropolished product-contact surfaces, closed-loop solvent recovery, PLC-based automation and full batch documentation, each plant is delivered as a commissioned turnkey system engineered to the declared 2% Agnuside by HPLC specification. Marketing and formulation claims for chaste berry extract should be framed in neutral, structure/function language around hormonal-balance support rather than medical claims.

Technical Specifications

Product	Chaste Berry Extraction Plant
Botanical Name	Vitex agnus-castus
Raw Material	Dried Chaste Berry (Vitex agnus-castus) fruit
Plant Part	Fruit / berry
Extract Type	Standardised dry extract (powder)
Standardisation	2% Agnuside by HPLC
Extraction Method	Hydro-alcoholic solvent extraction (closed, jacketed SS 316L extractors)
Product-contact Material	SS 316L, electropolished, CIP-cleanable
Filtration System	Plate-and-frame filter press with cartridge polish filtration
Concentration System	Falling-film / vacuum evaporator with closed-loop solvent recovery
Drying System	Spray dryer or vacuum tray dryer
Automation	PLC-SCADA with recipe management, batch traceability and production reporting
Plant Capacity	Configured to requirement
Utility Requirements	Steam, chilled/cooling water, compressed air, soft water, power (project-specific)
Compliance	GMP, HACCP hygienic design; full documentation for qualification
Final Product Form	Free-flowing standardised extract powder

Plant Capacities

Plant Scale	Berry Throughput	Typical Use
Pilot	Configured to your feedstock and trial plan	Product development, parameter validation
Semi-Commercial	Configured between pilot and commercial scale	Contract manufacturing, scale-up trials
Commercial	Configured to raw-material supply and confirmed buyer volume	Export-grade continuous production

Capacity is configured to raw-material supply and confirmed buyer volume; we recommend a pilot plant to validate agnuside recovery parameters before scaling.

Manufacturing Process

Berry Cleaning & Size Reduction

Dried Chaste Berry fruit is cleaned to remove stem fragments, leaf debris and foreign matter, tested for moisture, and milled to a uniform particle size to maximise solvent contact with the pericarp and seed.

Hydro-Alcoholic Extraction

Milled berry is charged into closed, jacketed SS 316L extraction vessels and extracted with a controlled hydro-alcoholic solvent system under regulated temperature and multiple cycles to maximise recovery of agnuside and related iridoid glycosides.

Solid-Liquid Separation & Filtration

The extract slurry is clarified through a plate-and-frame filter press followed by cartridge polish filters, removing fruit fibre and seed particulate.

Vacuum Concentration

The filtered miscella is concentrated in a falling-film / vacuum evaporator under reduced pressure and moderated temperature to protect the agnuside glycosidic structure from thermal degradation.

Solvent Recovery

A closed-loop recovery system condenses, purifies and recycles the recovered solvent back into production.

HPLC Standardisation

The concentrate is assayed by HPLC and adjusted to the declared 2% Agnuside specification before drying.

Drying & Quality Control

The standardised extract is spray- or vacuum-tray dried to a free-flowing, low-moisture powder, then released after agnuside HPLC assay, residual-solvent, heavy-metal, microbial, and moisture testing with full certificate-of-analysis documentation.

Major Plant Equipment

Raw material cleaning system
Hammer mill / berry mill (size reduction)
Stainless-steel hydro-alcoholic extraction vessels (jacketed, SS 316L)
Solvent storage tanks
Solvent transfer pumps
Plate-and-frame filter press / pressure leaf filter
Cartridge polish filters
Falling-film / vacuum evaporator
Closed-loop solvent recovery system
Condensers & vacuum pumps
Spray dryer / vacuum tray dryer
CIP (clean-in-place) system
Storage tanks & finished-product tanks
PLC-SCADA control panel, electrical MCC & instrumentation

Plant Output

Chaste Berry Extract — 0.5% Agnuside by HPLCChaste Berry Extract — 2% Agnuside by HPLC (standard grade)

From Plant to Product

Chaste Berry Extract

This botanical is also in the product range of Sureka Life Sciences, our sister concern in botanical ingredients.

Applications

Women's-health nutraceutical capsule and tablet manufacturing
Hormonal-balance-support supplement formulations (structure/function category)
Pharmaceutical standardised ingredient supply
Traditional and botanical wellness preparations
Export to regulated-market ingredient buyers

Key Features

GMP Hygienic SS 316L Construction
Electropolished SS 316L product-contact surfaces use GMP hygienic design, with CIP operation between batches.
Closed-Loop Solvent Recovery
Integrated recovery returns solvent for reuse each batch, reducing fresh-solvent consumption.
HPLC-Verified Agnuside Standardisation
In-process and batch-release HPLC assay are used to check the finished extract against its declared 2% Agnuside specification, with full certificate-of-analysis documentation.
Moderated-Temperature Processing
Concentration and drying stages are run at controlled temperature to protect the agnuside iridoid glycoside from thermal degradation.
Integrated Drying
A matched spray/vacuum dryer produces a free-flowing, low-moisture powder ready for encapsulation and blending.
Scalable Batch Capacity
Plants are configured to requirement from pilot scale upward, with modular expansion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Mechotech supply the complete machinery for Chaste Berry Extract?

Yes. Mechotech supplies the complete turnkey plant for Chaste Berry Extract — engineered, fabricated at our Hyderabad facility, installed, and commissioned as a single integrated system.

Are whole berries used, or are they crushed and de-seeded first?

Whole dried berries are milled directly rather than de-seeded, since agnuside is concentrated across both the pericarp and seed tissue of the small chaste-berry fruit — unlike larger fruits where pulp and seed are processed separately, chaste berry's small size makes whole-berry milling the practical route to expose both fractions to the extraction solvent. The mill is set to a particle size fine enough to rupture the seed coat and pericarp for solvent contact without over-milling into a fine dust that would slow downstream filtration.

What plant part of Chaste Berry is used, and why?

The dried fruit (berry) of Vitex agnus-castus is used, since agnuside — the iridoid glycoside responsible for the plant's characteristic activity — is concentrated in the pericarp and seed of the fruit rather than the leaves.

Is Chaste Berry Extract the same as Mechotech's other Vitex-family plants?

No. Chaste Berry Extract is produced from Vitex agnus-castus fruit, standardised to Agnuside. This is a different species and plant part from Mechotech's Nirgundi (Vitex negundo) and Vitex lucoxylon lines, which are separate products with their own marker compounds — buyers should confirm the specific Vitex species and plant part required for their formulation.

What extraction method is used, and how much solvent is recovered?

Chaste berry fruit is processed by controlled hydro-alcoholic extraction in closed, jacketed SS 316L extractors, followed by vacuum concentration and a closed-loop recovery system that returns solvent for reuse each batch. For other botanicals needing solvent-based extraction, Mechotech also builds general-purpose solvent extraction plants.

What production capacities are available for the Chaste Berry Extract plant?

Mechotech builds Chaste Berry Extract plants from pilot systems for product development to commercial-scale plants. Capacity is selected from raw-material supply, confirmed buyer volume, and investment timeline; we recommend a pilot plant to validate agnuside recovery parameters before scaling.

Which industries use the Chaste Berry Extract plant, and does the plant support GMP qualification?

Nutraceutical manufacturers producing women's-health and hormonal-balance-support formulations, alongside pharmaceutical ingredient buyers, use Mechotech plants for consistent, compliant chaste berry extract production. Every plant is built in electropolished SS 316L with CIP cleaning to GMP hygienic design, with full documentation for qualification.

Does raw material quality affect the achievable agnuside yield?

Yes. Agnuside content in dried chaste berry fruit varies with harvest timing, drying method, and storage conditions ahead of processing, since the glycoside can degrade with prolonged heat or moisture exposure. Mechotech recommends raw-material moisture testing and, where possible, a pilot extraction run on the buyer's specific source lot to validate expected yield before committing to commercial-scale capacity.

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Chaste Berry Extract