The ingredient is a biosynthesized form of the molecule found in the Rhodiola rosea. The parent plant was recently added to the Appendix II portion of the CITES list, indication a potential concern about the wild populations. At least some of the ingredient in trade is sourced from cultivated plants. Nevertheless, the CITIES news could well bolster the sustainability message that Landkind pushes relating to its production method.
“GRAS approval marks a significant milestone for Landkind,“ said Cavan Farley, Senior Vice President, Global Business Groups at DoubleRainbow Biosciences & President of Landkind. “As we continue to grow LK-01™ and prepare a range of new salidroside-based products, this decision provides consumers and potential partners with full confidence in the use of our revolutionary salidroside as a safe and effective option.”
Grant Smith, vice president of corporate strategy and chief brand officer for Landkind, sat down with NutraIngredient-USA in mid 2022 at the time of the ingredient’s initial launch to give a rundown of the production process for the new offering and what he sees as its potential.
Getting to the precise benefits of an adaptogen
Smith said the company focused first on Rhodiola because of the vast potential of the botanical. What was needed, he said, was a more focused concept of both of the botanical’s message and its health effects.
Commonly referred to as a adaptogen, rhodiola has historically been mentioned in connection with stress management and mood support. An issue with the adaptogenic positioning early on was that marketers seemed to be promoting this and other adaptogenic ingredients for a whole host of issues. Good for what ails ya, in other words. It was a way of formulating that message that was rife with abuse and misunderstanding and the potential for both overpromising and underdelivering.
With LK-01, however, Smith said Landkind can hone that message as it pertains to the effects of a 99.5% pure biosynthetic ingredient. The salidroside molecule that is the target of the development effort is present at only about 1% by weight in the parent plant, Smith said.
“At its core Rhodiola is an adaptogen. But it’s the salidroside that is helping at the cellular level, where it is improving metabolic function and improving ATP production,” he said.
Computational platforms provide basis for development effort
Smith said the company uses a development platform it has dubbed as HARMONY to “decode the biosynthesis pathways of valuable natural compounds to identify and bioengineer these valuable molecules and deliver their full therapeutic potential to patients.”
Then, using another computational approached branded as PRISM, the company’s scientists can decode which microorganism genes need to be altered and in what way to engineer ‘cell factories’ to produced the desired molecules.
“We're leveraging precision glycosylation to bioengineer functional sugar motifs that improve the specificity and efficacy of a range of therapeutics through our GDC technology. Our proprietary technology allows us to maximize the potential of sugar motifs through unprecedented selectivity and control,” Smith said.
