The Plant Extract Collection Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein (PECKISH) Is an Open Access Screening Library

Because plants and their extracts are a potent resource for bioactive substances we developed the plant extract collection Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein (PECKISH) as an open access screening library. PECKISH contains more than 4500 unique aqueous (about 64%), ethanolic (about 32%), and other (about 4%) extracts from > 880 different plant species and 11 different plant tissues. PECKISH represents about 190 plant families. Extracts were obtained from health shops, outdoor cultivated plants, marine algae, herbs from traditional Chinese medicine, African plants and known medicinal plants. Concentrated and sterilized extracts are stored at -80 °C and are available in a 96-well plate format including empty wells for positive and negative controls. The library format allows medium throughput screenings using enzymatic assays, cell-based assays or phenotypic read-outs using model-organisms such asC. elegans or D. melanogaster. Screenings based on PECKISH are useful to develop dietary supplements, functional foods or drugs. The uniqueness of PECKISH lies in its broad diversity of plant extracts and its open access character.