A New Era in Plant Extracts with Domestic R&D

Global demand for herbal extracts—used across dietary supplements, cosmetics, functional foods, animal health, and agricultural applications—is rising rapidly. The market, valued at approximately USD 33.9 billion as of 2024, is also driving high-value raw material production and advanced technology investments.

Despite Turkey's rich plant diversity, the country has long relied on import-dependent production models for many herbal extracts. Talya Bitkisel, after approximately 3.5 years of research and development, has implemented an integrated production model that consolidates herbal extraction, powder extract manufacturing, and process infrastructure under one roof.

Transition from Imported Products to Integrated Production
Rising demand has made standardized, traceable raw materials with high active ingredient concentrations a priority for the sector. The system developed by Talya Bitkisel enables plant extraction processes, active ingredient separation, and high-purity powder extract production to take place in-house.

The resulting herbal extracts serve as raw materials in numerous applications: dietary supplements, functional foods, cosmetic products, aromatherapy solutions, animal health, and agricultural applications.

Domestic Technology Advancing Through Research and Experience
M. Halis Ertaş, Founder of Talya Bitkisel, noted that due to limited domestic technical knowledge and production infrastructure in herbal extraction, the process has largely been shaped by research and development work, trial production runs, and field experience. He stated that the developed system emerged as a result of significant investment and accumulated knowledge.

Ertaş noted that the process unit investment alone reached approximately USD 3 million, and total investment including research and development, technology, and knowledge infrastructure reached USD 5–6 million. He elaborated:

"Domestic technical knowledge in herbal extraction and powder extract production was quite limited. For this reason, the process was largely shaped by research and development work and field experience. Over the 3.5-year period, we worked with numerous plants. For example, we are conducting a turmeric project supported by TÜBİTAK in cooperation with the Western Mediterranean Agricultural Research Institute (BATEM) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. These efforts represent concrete examples of the know-how we have developed."

More Than a Production Line
Emphasizing that they have invested not only in production but also in knowledge and technology infrastructure, Ertaş stated that the developed model has evolved into a structure providing raw materials to various sectors:

"Today we have become a structure supplying raw materials to numerous sectors—from cosmetics to food, from animal health to agriculture. Creating domestic production capacity for ingredients that had long been imported represents significant progress. For us, the real investment is the investment in knowledge and research and development."

About Talya Bitkisel
Founded in Antalya in 1969, Talya Bitkisel operates in the fields of aromatherapy, herbal cosmetics, dietary supplements, and natural lifestyle products. Working according to a "seed to shelf" production philosophy, the brand develops high-purity products using advanced manufacturing technologies and scientific research and development approaches.

In addition to Turkey, Talya Bitkisel exports to more than 40 countries and continues its global market activities through its U.S. operation, Talya Herbal LLC.