PAID CONTENT
How unique technology and plant ingredients can join forces to help support the body’s absorption
of powerful nutrients.
Boosting supplement bioavailability–naturally
Consumers want to know that the products they buy are actually effective. And when it comes to supplements: no bioavailability, no benefits. If the body can’t absorb a supplement’s active ingredients, the product won’t help consumers. Unfortunately, some of the botanicals that have the most exciting results in labs have not proven as impactful in people because of low bioavailability. Fortunately, scientists are using cutting-edge technology to find a way to increase bioavailability, while slashing the need for the excipients that consumers have been increasingly avoiding as the importance of clean label grows.
Clean eating is now the most widely followed diet in the U.S., according to the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2019 Food and Health Survey. Dublin-based market researcher Research and Markets predicts that the global clean ingredients market will reach $47.5 billion by 2023 with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 7%.
“With social media, consumers are becoming hyper-educated and can very quickly change purchasing habits,” says Jaclyn Bowen of the Clean Label Project, a nonprofit that focuses on health and transparency to empower consumers. “The onus is on brands to cater to what consumers are concerned about … Make sure your products not only deliver more of the good stuff, but also make sure they don’t have the bad stuff, the things consumers hear about through social media and mainstream media.”
Click here for more data and takeaways
Perhaps because of what they learn from the media—and well-funded pharmaceutical companies—that consumers may actually trust the pharmaceutical industry more than the supplements industry, according to Nutrition Business Journal research.
45% believe the pharmaceutical industry is trustworthy
39% believe the supplement industry is trustworthy
Consumers have much more faith, however, in premium supplement brands:
67% of consumers believe premium brands are trustworthy
38% of consumers believe value brands are trustworthy
Consumer trust data is brighter among current supplement users, according to the Council on Responsible Nutrition. [2019 CRN consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements]:
96% of supplement users have overall confidence in the safety and quality of vitamins and minerals, the most popular category of dietary supplements
75% of supplement users have overall confidence in the safety and quality of specialty supplements like probiotics and omegas
72% of dietary supp users have overall confidence in the safety and quality of herbs and botanicals this rapidly growing category. With 50% of total supplement users taking these products, the category has grown by 19% since 2015
Polarity is key when it comes to bioavailability. What does that mean? Different criteria determine whether a molecule is polar or non-polar, such as electrical charge or the symmetry of the molecular structure. When polar molecules meet other polar molecules, they tend to merge. Same goes for non-polar molecules and and other non-polar molecules. When polar molecules meet non-polar molecules, however, they reject each other. A familiar example is oil and water:
Rich in potential, poor in bioavailability
Oil molecules:
• non-polar
• hydrophobic
• “water fearing”
• do not dissolve in water
Water molecules:
• polar
• hydrophilic
• “water loving”
• dissolve in water
Luckily, we can detect when polarity and therefore bioavailability is poor. Polarity is related to the structural morphology and molecular interactions of the formulation and it can be tested in various ways, including using scanning electron microscopes, analyzing current-voltage curves, using thermogravimetric analysis (where changes in temperature are measured across increasing heat), using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and using x-ray diffraction.
Curcumin is hydrophobic.
Our intestinal tissue favors transport of hydrophilic permeants.
Blockbuster ingredient curcumin topped herbal supplement sales charts for five consecutive years, from 2013 to 2017, when CBD knocked it off the podium. While consumers continue to clamor for the Ayurvedic hero’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, curcumin is notoriously difficult for the body to absorb. Formulators focused on bioavailability, therefore, have an advantage.
Nutraceutical manufacturer Aurea BioLabs developed a new way to boost the bioavailability of curcumin and other popular supplement ingredients, including ginger and rosemary, called Polar Non-polar Sandwiching (PNS).
Innovating for improved bioavailability
PNS delivers innovative, high-performance solutions using bioactives—not the chemical excipients more and more consumers are trying to avoid.
Here's how it looks
Benefits of PNS technology:
• Increases bioavailability
• Excipient-free, enabling organic label
• Produces chemically distinct and clinically superior natural isolates with clean labeling
• Improves functional properties
• Enhances stability
• Allows controlled release of specific molecules at target site
Rosemary oil, Carnosic acid
Acumin, a 100% turmeric based ingredient created with Polar Non-polar Sandwich technology, exhibited 10-fold increase of free curcumin in blood plasma compared to standard 95% curcumin, according to research published in Material Science and Engineering.
Science says...
Using a “soup” and a “sandwich” to improve bioavailability
First, the “soup:”
Scientists extract three things from raw turmeric: curcuminoid, turmeric essential oil and water extract of turmeric, and make a polar and non-polar soup.
Then, the “sandwich:”
Scientists at Aurea Biolabs recreate the natural matrix of turmeric ingredients in a way that sandwiches the active components between polar and non-polar (water soluble and oil soluble) components enabling them to collectively penetrate the cell membrane and reach the bloodstream. This branded ingredient from Aurea is called Acumin.
How PNS works:
Poorly absorbed cucumin
Curcumin
Cell wall
Readily absorbed cucumin
Curcumin
Curcumin
Cell wall
Curcumin has a non-polar structure. Our intestinal tissue is polar.
The tissue rejectes the curcumin, preventing it from crossing to our blood stream where it can be absorbed.
Rosmarinic acid
PNS Ginger
Cognique contains active, standardized components of not only rosemary and ginger, but also bacosides and carnosic acid.
Ginger water extract
Gingerols
Ginger oil
Ginactiv offers high purity gingerols and the best possible bio-availability that can be achieved in a powder form. PNS also standardizes the Shogaol and volatile oil content in Ginactiv.
Turmeric water extract
Curcumin
Asafoetida
ActBiome helps keep gut biomes in good shape, restores gut health and promotes the growth of healthy gut microflora.
Bacoside
Polar molecules merge
Non-polar molecules merge
Polar and Non-polar reject
4 ingredient structures treated with PNS technology
Curcuminoids
Acumin Curcuminoids at the center; turmeric oil and turmeric water extracts are the polar/non polar constituents.
Turmeric water extract
Turmeric oil
Perhaps because of what they learn from the media—and well-funded pharmaceutical companies—consumers may actually trust the pharmaceutical industry more than the supplements industry, according to Nutrition Business Journal research.
believe the pharmaceutical industry is trustworthy
45%
believe the supplement industry is trustworthy
39%
Consumers have much more faith, however, in premium supplement brands:
of consumers believe premium brands are trustworthy
67%
of consumers believe value brands are trustworthy
38%
Consumer trust data is brighter among current supplement users, according to the Council on Responsible Nutrition. [2019 CRN consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements]:
of supplement users have overall confidence in the safety and quality of vitamins and minerals, the most popular category of dietary supplements
96%
of supplement users have overall confidence in the safety and quality of specialty supplements like probiotics and omegas
75%