"There are only three companies working in the field of polyphenolics and we are the only one in the world - as far as I know - which uses enhanced technology to recover the full spectrum of nutrients from the original plant," Bob Bickel, the president and CEO of Nutra-Tech Bio Sciences told NutraIngredientsUSA.com.
After a year and a half of research his team has come up with a three-stage production process to extract juice, seeds or grape skin that leaves the polyphenolic structure in place.
Bickel would not go into detail about the method as he and his team are still waiting to receive patents for it. However, he pointed out that the first stage was based around water, the second used beverage grade alcohol to extract everything that is alcohol soluble, while the third existed to recover all the polyphenolic structures in a relatively short period of time.
"For the third phase we have developed an in-house process via which we carry out an ionic exchange using resin beads," said Bickel.
The rest of the information will be kept secret until the patent is awarded - he expects to file his documents in 180 days time.
Bickel explained that at the end of the process he is left with a residual leftover, which resembles water, and contains all the proteins, enzymes, minerals and amino acids, and a syrup mixture containing the full polyphenolic structure of whatever is being extracted.
To dry the syrup in order to obtain a highly concentrated powder, Nutra-Tech again believes is it ahead of the game.
"We tested different drying processes and lots of them caused oxidated damage," said Bickel. "We have invented an infra-red drying technology, which increases the polyphenolic concentration by five or even 10 times."
Nutra-Tech plans to get the muscadine grape pomace onto the market as a liquid gel capsule by the first week of September. The firm will sell three varieties of capsule, raspberry, muscadine whole fruit pomace and raspberry mix, and has been running tests on blueberries -"which are purported to have significant health benefits" -with the idea of producing a muscadine grape seed, blueberry and green tea mix.
" We will be - as far as I am aware - the only company in the world that will be selling 95 percent - 100 percent pure raspberry extract," said Bickel. "All other raspberry extracts have arrived on the market through traditional methods and are only about 40 percent pure."
Bickel is confident about his product and believes that it is through new technology that government bodies, like the FDA, will be able to regulate the functional foods industry as it will enable absolute standards to be applied.
"It is the responsibility of companies like ours to invest in the most appropriate and enhanced science available and this has not been the case in the past," said Bickel. "Other companies develop marketing plans simply for the sake of making a fast buck, with little thought for what they are actually putting onto the market."
The muscadine grape (vitis rotundifolia) is native to south east America and contains polyphenolic structures superior in quality and quantity to traditional European grapes (vitis vinifera), according to Nutra-Tech.
However, Anil Shrikhande, vice president of research and developmentat Constellation Wine US (which markets grape-derived ingredients through its Polyphenolics subsidiary), questions Nutra-Tech's assertions about the superiority of muscadine grapes.
"There have been many reports regarding the presence of ellagic acid in muscadine grape skins," Shrikhande said. "Ellagic acid may be formed by the auto-oxidation and lactonization of gallic acid esters, of which there are probably more in this grape than in the vitis vinifera." But, he does not believe this necessarily means the grape has a superior polyphenolic structure.
"Since numerous studies indicate OPCs (oligomeric procyanidins) are the key compounds responsible for the antioxidant and biological activity of grape seeds, it should not matter from which grapes these compounds are extracted," said Anil Shrikhande.
For him, the molecular size of the OPCs, which are extracted from the grape seeds is most important. "Since Nutra-Tech's system is not defined, it may be difficult to claim superiority as mentioned here," he concluded.
Polyphenols are the most abundant group of plant phenolic compounds, known to provide much of the flavor, color, and taste to fruits, vegetables, seeds, and other parts of the plants. As dietary sources of biologically active compounds they have been proven to be valuable for health. They have been linked to reduce the risk of cariovascular disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases.
Commercially available grape seed and skin extracts are a rich source of these polyphenols. The various health benefits of polyphenols have been associated with their antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-allergenic properties.