BioGin to launch resveratrol for weight loss
products primarily targeted at weight loss for the United States
market.
Resveratrol is most widely sourced from grape skins and has been linked to cardiovascular health, as well as brain and mental health. Biogin's resveratrol is sourced from the plant giant knotweed (hu zhang), red wine and grape skin. The Chinese company says it is basing its targeting of the weight loss market on recently reported links between high doses of resveratrol and subsequent weight loss in mice. According to Biogin, mice fed with resveratrol and a very high calorie diet did not develop the organ damage and reduction in physical performance that the placebo mice did. If it turns out that the compound can do the same for humans, the market potential is huge with obesity being referred to as America's national epidemic. An estimated 66 percent of adults in the US are either overweight or obese, based on results from the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Consequently, the government has made it a national health objective to reduce the obesity prevalence to less than 15 percent by 2010. This is no small feat when taking into consideration the rate of obesity more than doubled from the previous NHANES survey - increasing from 15.0 percent (1976-1980) to 32.9 percent (2003-2004). Biogin is still at the early stages of planning its strategy for resveratrol for weight loss in the US. "We want to explore the market for weight loss," Biogin sales director Max Tu told NutraIngredients-USA. For the US market, the company will be making resveratrol ingredients available specifically for use in dietary supplements. These will include: 20 and 50 percent resveratrol concentrates extracted from giant knotweed; spectrum giant knotweed extract (which Biogin claims is more potent for weight loss); and red wine extract standardized for polyphenols & resveratrol. Biogin's resveratrol extract from giant knotweed is manufactured without any emodine. According to the company, some customers complained of diarrhea after taking resveratrol- related products. This was likely linked to the emodine, so Biogin has launched 20 and 50 percent resveratrol free of emodine. The supplier is gearing up its production capacity thanks to advances it claims to have made in fermentation technology. "Fermentation technology has to be applied in the production process of resveratrol, which is a new area for most of the Chinese extractors", said, Dr Chai, chief technical expert with Biogin. The next step for Biogin is to secure a marketing partner to bring its resveratrol line to the US. While it has been speaking to various North American distributors, it says it would like to secure one exclusive distributing partner. The company would like to outsource marketing initiatives. "We put more attention on the technical side," said Tu of Biogin's strengths.
