US-based dietary supplement producer Sabinsa has developed a new High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) testing procedure which has been reviewed and approved by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention.
The company said it had sent the method to the leading analytical labs in the US which service the dietary supplements industry.
The company said it had developed the new test in order to accurately assess the claims of products rivaling its Selenium SeLECT ingredient. Many of these selenium products, the company said, claim to provide L-(+)-Selenomethionine - an organic form of selenium which is recognized as the most bioavailable form of the nutrient.
However, Sabinsa's HPLC analysis of these selenium products which claim to be L-(+)-Selenomethionine revealed that the majority are not based on this organic form and are instead a mixture of an inorganic or organic selenium salt with methionine.
"It is part of our ongoing commitment to raise the consciousness and quality of dietary supplement ingredients," said company president Todd Norton.
Sabinsa's Selenium SeLECT is currently the focus of a large scale prostate cancer study funded through the National Institute of Health's (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI). It is the only selenium source being administered in the study. A second study was recently undertaken to evaluate selenomethionine's potential role in Alzheimer's patients.