Not Waste, Treasure!

Altınbaş University Faculty of Pharmacy students Çağrı Budak, Nisa Merve Demircan and Serdar Karaca were awarded the second prize in the Waste Management System and Applications Category with their work called Phytocycle .

Çağrı Budak, a 5th grade student at Altınbaş University Faculty of Pharmacy, said that they completed their work in about a year. Budak stated that their aim was to develop ideas that would contribute to the pharmacy sector by acting with social responsibility and sustainability awareness.

Çağrı Budak stated that they developed the "Phytocycle" project with the motto "Not Waste, Treasure!" and said, "Our project, which is based on the production of active substances of herbal origin, will make significant contributions to the environment as it provides recycling of waste as well as the pharmacy sector.

Budak explained that the project envisages the separation of natural wastes from factories producing fruit or vegetable waste or from public markets into active substances such as resveratrol, saponin and phenol using appropriate laboratory conditions and methods, and said: "The separated herbal active substances can be used by R&D laboratories, OTC companies and universities in Turkey or abroad. Pharmacist-produced herbal active ingredients will be used as a reliable ingredient in the market. At the same time, since waste is utilized, the reduction in production cost will lead to a more affordable price of the product in the market."