Plandai Biotechnology, Inc. to Enter Medical Marijuana Field With Phyto Cannabinoid Extract

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Oct 30, 2013) - Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc. (OTCQB: PLPL), a producer of highly bioavailable plant extracts for industries including health, wellness, nutriceutical, and pharmaceutical, today announced that it has formed a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Cannabis Biosciences, Inc., in Delaware, for the purpose of developing and testing a new Phytofare™ botanical extract derived from cannabis.

Preliminarily dubbed Phytofare™ Phyto-cannabinoid Complex, the new extract will share a similar extraction process to the other Phytofare™ products and is expected to demonstrate the same high levels of bioavailability and purity. During the extraction process the company could also remove the psychoactive compound (THC), rendering a botanical drug that offers many of the medicinal benefits of cannabis without the perceived negative side effects and social stigma. 

Cannabis has shown strong medicinal potential across multiple fields in numerous independent clinical trials, including controlling symptoms of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), Multiple Sclerosis and Crohn's disease, managing insulin levels in diabetics, and fighting breast cancer. THC has also been shown to help in reducing brain tumors and slowing the advance of Alzheimer's. In fact, the United States Department of Health and Human Services states in a 2001 U.S. Patent Application (Patent Number 6,630,507) that:

"Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention."

Roger Duffield, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Plandaí Biotechnology, commented, "For the past twelve months, the Plandaí team has been working with cannabis to first ascertain if our patent-pending process could produce a phyto-cannabinoid extract that exhibits the same high bioavailability of our other Phytofare™ products. Working with cannabis presents unique challenges in that it produces a very sticky oil that must be dealt with -- and that only after navigating the complex legal obstacles. However, the medicinal opportunities associated with phyto-cannabinoids are simply too great to ignore."

Mr. Duffield indicated that, having completed the science, preliminary bioavailability testing should commence in early 2014 with clinical trials commencing later in the year to pursue various pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.

About Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc.

Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc. and its subsidiaries develop highly bioavailable, phytonutrient rich extracts which are being utilized to deliver a new family of drugs to safely and affordably treat a multitude of diseases and conditions. Plandaí Biotechnology controls every aspect of the process, from growing the raw materials on its farms in South Africa, to producing its patented Phytofare™ extracts in-house, allowing the Company to guarantee the continuity of supply as well as quality control throughout the entire process. Targeted industries for the Company's products include beverage, cosmeceutical, wellness, nutraceutical, anti-aging, and pharmaceutical. For more information, please visit http://www.plandaibiotech.com.

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