The British Columbia-based company is building a full scale plant in Vancouver which will be operational in May or June, CEO Len Zapalowski told NutraIngredients-USA as the recent Expo West trade show in Anaheim, CA. The company’s approach has garnered interest with the industry because of its high efficiency and it’s ultra-clean results.
Water extraction is as old as herbalism itself, but has drawbacks in that many compounds of interest are only indifferently soluble, leading to the use of various solvents starting with ethanol. But the company’s new technology, brainchild of founder Dr Giuseppe (Joe) Mazza, makes use of the way the properties change in useful ways under heat and pressure to vastly increase its extraction capability.
“What we do is to pressurize and heat water above 100 degrees Centigrade and by so doing we increase the solubility of water so that it behaves more like an organic solvent,” Zapalowski said. Mazza didn’t discover this property but was the first to see its possibilities in botanical extraction, he said.
Mazza Innovation now has three extracts—of blueberry, cranberry and green tea—available that demonstrate the ultra-pure results of the process, Zapalowski said.