Mycelium Sona Biotech of The Sona Group inaugurates its first laboratory in Salem

Mycelium Sona Biotech, a new biotechnology venture of The Sona Group, inaugurated its first laboratory in Thiagarajar Polytechnic College on 21st April 2022 with a pooja. Chairman of The Sona Group Mr. C. Valliappa, MD Mr. Chocko Valliappa, Investor and Advisor of Mycelium Biotechnology Mr. Richard Jabara, COO of Vee Technologies Mr. Muralidhar Padmanabharao, and Director and SBU Head of Mycelium Sona Biotech Mr. Nirmalesh Sampath Kumar were present in the inauguration event. The stakeholders introduced the products and their features to the reporters present at the event.

Chocko Valliappa says, "Mycelium Sona Biotech is one of the largest medicinal mushroom cultivation centers in India. We are studying and producing mushroom extracts for medicinal purposes.” Introducing Richard Jabara, he announced the partnership of Mycelium Sona Biotech and Mycelium Biotechnology, Australia. He explained the mushroom extract products saying, “these mushrooms are for curing and healing purposes. For example, if you’re sleep-deprived, we have a mushroom extract to cure it. You can take a drop of it in a glass of water/can consume it directly. It gives you a good night's sleep. It is not a treatment but of nutraceutical in nature that offers health values. The laboratory is set in a college as we will conduct more research and the agriculture students can learn from us."

Nirmalesh Kumar explained the medicinal values of these mushrooms, "In India, we have domesticated only white mushroom. From countries like Australia and China, we import medicinal mushrooms extracts. We are going to cultivate 16 different strains of mushrooms that are with medicinal properties. We would extract the bioactive materials and make them into consumable products. We are getting a global standard certification for this facility, after which the products made in this facility can be exported to global countries like Australia, America, and European countries directly. This facility is going to be food grade as well as nutraceutical grade so that we can grow mushrooms and sell the products."

Talking about the organic value of these mushrooms he told reporters, “Though the mushrooms are grown in a controlled environment, these are going to be completely organic grown. We are not going to add chemicals to it. Secondly, if we are using chemicals, we cannot sell it as a nutraceutical product that contains unwanted contents in it.” These mushrooms are not hybrid/genetically modified as well. “We cannot use genetically modified strains as the bioactive agent qualities in these mushrooms will be reduced. We are importing mother culture from Australia, America, and Belgium and cultivating them here,” puts forth Nirmalesh to back up their stand on organic production.

He also explained the usage of these mushrooms. These mushroom extracts can be used to bring back the immunity of the cattle and poultry, which is backed by the research done in Australia. Mycelium Sona Biotech has also used it on the chickens which result in increased lifetime and egg counts of the chickens. Intellectual Property (IP) is already created in Australia. Mycelium Sona Biotech will also do IP. He also added, “We talked with the VC of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. They are going to be our partner on the research and academic side."

Though Mycelium Sona Biotech is a production facility they will educate the masses about the values of these mushrooms and how can they work with their partners culturally.

He shared how these strains are cultivated. “North-east part of India like Assam has these kinds of mushrooms that are of medicinal value. They are wild grown and can be availed only in the seasons, especially when the tribal people collect them. We create a similar environment from Assam and Himalayas for the mushrooms to grow at 16 degrees Celsius or lower and monitoring oxygen and carbon-di-oxide contents and growing these mushrooms in a controlled environment. We use organic certified brown rice as a growth medium.”

Richard Jabara talks about Life Cykel products that are produced in Australia, “Usually, we extract the active elements out the mycelium, which is another word for mushroom. They contain 0.01% starch. Starch is always a problem with mushrooms. We extract the starch. That’s how it offers value. People around the world, when they take our mushrooms extracts, they get immediate value.” He added that they have 13,000 five-star reviews for these products on our website, Life Cykel. Now the Australian company wants to make these products in India.

After talking to the reporters, they opened the laboratory rooms cutting the ribbons.

About The Sona Group

The Sona Group is a premier business group in India. The origins of the group can be traced back to pre-Independence India. The Group was founded by Kalaithanthai Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar, who was moved by the plight of tea garden workers in the country. He was drawn to the freedom movement and set out to empower his fellow countrymen to enhance India’s economic development. He aimed to achieve this lofty goal through education and industrial development resulting in the employment of Indians. Since its inception in the 1920s, The Sona Valliappa Group has pioneered India’s growth in the fields of agriculture, textiles, real estate, IT, education, and research.