The ingredient, branded as Lignoflex, is a pecan shell flour that contains that contains polyphenols, antioxidants and fiber, according to the manufacturer, Southeastern Reduction Company. According to vice president John Nizio, the ingedient has some other interesting functional properties as well that has to do with the flour’s unique particle shape and makeup.
“We have competed against cellulose and other fibers that have a more longitudinal, splinter-like shape,” Nizio told NutraIngredients-USA. “Our flour particles have a more rounded, oval shape with an internal canal network that runs through the particle, which is where the polyphenolic compounds are.”
Early animal data
The ingredient had a long path to market and in particular to the GRAS filing, where it is approved for a 10% inclusion rate, Nizio said.
The company, which is a division of South Georgia Pecan Co., has been grinding pecan shells for decades, with the first markets being in animal nutrition as a feed additive. Tests in the early 70s on the ingredient looked at its nutritional properties when compared to hay as a portion of the animals’ overall feed intake. The hay, it turned out, had more nutrition than the pecan flour and the animals grew better on it. But interestingly, when the test animals (calves in this case) were autopsied, the livers of the animals fed the pecan flour were in much better shape that the hay-fed animals.
“So we thought there must be something else going on here beyond the fiber,” Nizio said.
Southeastern Reduction sprung for a detailed antioxidant assay performed by Brunswick Labs. The assay is a much more in depth look at the performance of a potential antioxidant dietary ingredient than the standard ORAC test, as it looks at five reactive oxygen species—peroxyl, hydroxyl, peroxynitrite, superoxide anion, and singlet oxygen, and combines all those to come up with an “Orac 5.0” score.
In the test, the company compared the values for its ingredient against freeze dried blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and cranberries. The results were heartening, Nizio said.
“We are double and triple the values of the some of the other ingredients,” Nizio said.
Cost effective antioxidant
The top grade of Lignoflex scored 8483 on the scale, with the next ingredient—freeze dried strawberries—coming in at 4348. The company also paid Brunswick to conduct is Cellular Antioxidant Assay, a test meant to measure antioxidant activity in the body with an in vitro test using cultured human liver cells. The Lignoflex performed well here, too, scoring 303 on the test compared to freeze dried blueberries at 222.
Nizio said the ingredient could be used to add a fiber and antioxidant boost to smoothie mixes, nutrition bars and other matrices. And because of its shape and mechanical properties, it could have potential as a flow agent in some formulations while also adding nutritional functionality of its own.
“This is more free flowing and does not lead to agglomeration,” he said.
But the one of the things that garnered the most attention at the company’s booth at the recent SupplySide West trade show was the ingredient’s price, Nizio said. The pecan shell flour is left over from production of what’s already a high value crop and doesn’t require much additional processing beyond milling. Nizio said the washing and microbial kill steps (via a 200F water bath) that are already part of the nut meat production yield a very clean raw material. So the Lignoflex ends up being a fraction of the cost of the berry ingredients, and supply is plentiful; about 100 million pounds of pecans are harvested annually in Georgia each year, Nizio said, with another 70 million coming from New Mexico and 40 million from Texas.