AHCC renamed for US market
extract AHCC prior to its launch on the US market.
US-based distributor Quality of Life Labs is introducing a new name and look for its health ingredient AHCC under which it will be launched to the US retail market.
AHCC, or Active Hexose Correlated Compound, is a Japanese medicinal mushroom extract used to strengthen the immune system. The ingredient is derived from a highly specialised manufacturing process developed in the mid-1980s that uses the hybridisation of several species of mushrooms cultivated in Japan.
AHCC will be supplied in a new product called Kinoko."Kinoko means mushroom in Japanese, so now our customers will have a better way of identifying our medicinal mushroom supplement from Japan," said Steve Yamada, president of Quality of Life Labs.
"By developing this new name and label, we can feed the existing demand for AHCC and fuel new interest so others can benefit from the product."
Kinoko is available in bottles of 60 capsules, each containing 500mg, with a suggested daily dose of two to six capsules.
The company claims that industry analysts in Japan estimate that over 700 hospitals and medical clinics recommend AHCC to patients as part of an immune enhancement maintenance regimen. This has created a $150 million (€159.8m) industry.
AHCC has been the subject of several studies conducted at Japanese institutions such as Hokkaido University, Kyorin University and Teikyo University. Other studies are scheduled in the US for 2002 at institutions such as Columbia Presbyterian and Faulkner Hospital.
Quality of Life Labs, which won the Nutracon Best New Product of 2002 award for AHCC, said that the ingredient is taken by over 40,000 patients worldwide.
