Delivering the Nutriverse: How Innovation Drives Fresh Formulations

The world relies on supplements – of that, there is absolutely no doubt. In the vast umbrella of natural products and dietary supplements alone are on track to capture nearly $194 billion in sales.

Every year, there is a bounty of new brands launching supplements and existing brands reformulating or adding products. Beyond innovations in ingredients, advancements in how those ingredients are delivered are equally important. Consumer compliance is the ultimate achievement because their desire to keep taking the supplement fulfills the goal of repurchase and loyalty.

Compliance will be more assured if the consumer receives the benefit sought and promised by the manufacturer. How is this achieved? Aside from quality studies, delivery systems that enhance absorption, utilization and ease-of-use make all the difference.

Capsules and tablets, long a staple and primarily the only choices (along with liquid botanical extracts), remain the most popular formats. But traditional pills have limitations in absorption rates and nutrient stability, creating the need for improvements to maximize their therapeutic and nutritional effects.

Nutriventia’s advanced delivery systems ensure active contents are delivered efficiently to the bloodstream and specific tissues, optimizing their bioactivity. Recent delivery innovations allow the supplement to provide more consistent and predictable health benefits, leading to better outcomes for consumers.

Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) provide these benefits in several ways. They enhance the stability of nutraceuticals by preventing physical and chemical degradation and prevent plasma concentration fluctuation. NDDS also provide sustained-release formulations and prevent toxicity by targeting the active constituents to the site of action. Further, NDDS introduce new strategies to enhance pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, nonspecific toxicity, immunogenicity, biorecognition and efficacy of nutraceutical products.

Besides our unique and effective ingredients, we also help our customers create supplements that will satisfy consumer needs and preferences.

Sustained release:  Sustained release technology is designed to release specific active drugs or substances in the body gradually over an extended period of time, allowing a longer therapeutic effect on the body.

An example is our Prolanza ashwagandha root, an adaptogen and restorative herb embraced by millions. A sustained-release formulation of ashwagandha ensures a steady supply of beneficial compounds through an extended period, improving absorption and utilization of active ingredients, maintaining therapeutic effects throughout the day, and reducing the need for multiple doses. 

Dispersible solutions: The demand for rapid onset of action and improved bioavailability has driven the development of dosage forms that quickly disintegrate and dissolve in the mouth, facilitating direct absorption through the oral mucosa into the body. These solutions include fast-dissolving tablets (FTDs) and orally disintegrating films (ODFs)

FDTs are designed to disintegrate or dissolve rapidly in saliva without the need for water, offering a convenient and consumer-friendly alternative for those who are pill-averse. ODFs are placed on top of the tongue where they dissolve through saliva, rapidly releasing the nutraceutical actives.

Nanoencapsulation solutions: Nanoencapsulation techniques are recommended for improving water dispersibility, stability and bioavailability of poorly soluble nutraceuticals. Thanks to their good binding capacities, many proteins such milk proteins and soy proteins are natural nanovehicles for hydrophobic nutraceuticals.

It is challenging to formulate hydrophobic ingredients into functional foods and beverages due to their poor water solubility, chemical instability, and low and variable oral bioavailability. Consequently, researchers are developing various colloidal delivery systems to overcome these challenges, including micelles, microemulsions, nanoemulsions, emulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, and microgels. 

Micellar systems are particularly attractive for this purpose because they are thermodynamically stable, optically transparent, water dispersible, and may be designed to enhance bioavailability. 

Hydrophobic nutraceuticals, such as curcumin, can be loaded into the interior of the micelles to form a water-dispersible colloidal delivery system. There is currently great interest in the food industry in replacing synthetic surfactants with natural alternatives due to increasing consumer demand for “clean label” products.  Hence, it would be beneficial to be able to load hydrophobic nutraceuticals into micelles formed from natural surfactants.

Confectionary possibilities: Satisfying the desire for a little treat and obtaining health benefits is the magic mix and several forms have emerged, topped by gummies. Gummies have become a highly effective delivery system, meeting regulatory standards for accuracy, efficacy, and ingredient stability while offering a convenient and pleasant way to consume supplements.

Unlike traditional pills and capsules, gummies can accommodate both wet and dry active ingredients within a single piece, providing a unique advantage. Delivering nutraceuticals in gummy formulation allows fast absorption, sustained blood level, and avoidance of the destruction of the bioactive compound.

The gummy allows the bioactive compound to quickly access the blood stream and deliver the health benefits. Precision dosing of melatonin found in Melotime, for example, can be accomplished in gummies.

Functional chewing gum is still a relatively novel format in oral delivery systems compared to pills, gummies, liquids and chewable tablets for nutraceutical products. The use of gums, however, is fast making its way into various applications due to its wide consumer appeal and suitability for a diversity of active nutraceutical ingredients. Gum will improve compliance among those who like to chew gum and this form provides fast delivery of active ingredients suitable for oral absorption.

One of the developments is the direct compression process, which is used for sensitive actives not suitable for extruded gum products whose processing involves intensive mixing and elevated temperatures. The bi-layer format offers effective separation of the active ingredients and can therefore deliver ingenious combinations of actives with, for instance, different release times and absorption in the mouth, throat or later in the gastrointestinal tract. The right dosage is precisely controlled in each layer of the compressed gum to obtain maximum safety and efficacy of each active.

Taste-Masking: Treat-like supplements often need effective taste-masking. Taste-masking techniques are applied to conceal or overcome the bitter or unpleasant taste of active ingredients. The efficiency of taste-masking is often a key determinant for the success of specialized dosage forms like orally disintegrating tablets and films, and chewable tablets.

The mechanisms of taste-masking techniques often rely on two major approaches: the first is to add sweeteners, flavors, and effervescent agents to mask any unpleasant taste, and the second is to avoid the contact of bitter/unpleasant ingredients with taste buds.

An example of a widely consumed supplement, curcumin, can be successfully incorporated into chews and gummies through effective taste masking, as it naturally has a pungent-bitter flavor.

Using the right delivery system is one powerful component in achieving the ultimate goal of a loyal, happy consumer, and embedding your brand and product in the often fickle supplement market.