A spray dried powder derived from bovine serum, NutraGammax is made up of 90 per cent protein isolate and at least 20 percent immuniglobulin, a pathogen-neutralising protein.
It brings the benefits of the company's ImmunoLin bovine serum product to the mass market. Launched five years ago, ImmunoLin is marketed at the immunity support market and contains at least 45 percent immuniglobulin. It carrys a price tag more than three times higher than that of NutraGammax meaning that, until now, the bovine serum has been too expensive for the mass market.
The company has carried out around 50 animal science studies which it says demonstrate that plasma protein supplementation promotes lean tissue growth.
In particular they suggest that bovine serum has a positive effect on inflammatory cytokine production and expression, explaining, in part, how NutraGammex can aid lean tissue growth and utilize amino acids while reducing amino acid carabilism.
By means of comparison, Proliant president and CEO Eric Weaver said: "NutraGammex is basically an extreme version of undenatured whey protein isolates."
The new product can be used alone due to its clean taste and natural color, but is best combined with other protein sources such as albumin, casein and whey to boost levels of bioactive proteins and peptides.
Whereas these proteins have a high, balanced amino acid profile, they have very little bioactivity due to their low molecular weight and rapid digestion rate. NutraGammax, on the other hand, is rich in bioactive proteins, which the company says aids utilization of the amino acids and lean tissue growth.
In addition to the animal studies, Proliant has also conducted two studies in nutritionally deprived children in Latin America: one involving recovering malnutritioned children in Peru to ascertain the acceptability, safety and digestibility of spray dried bovine serum; and the other carried out among children from low income, peri-urban families in Guatemala to assess the effects of bovine serum concentrate on their growth, morbidity and micronutrient status.
Despite this research being focused on children, the company is aiming NutraGammax primarily at the sports nutrition world. VP of sales Lori Stevenson told NutraIngredients-USA.com that this is because the company is very familiar with this market and has a comfort level of knowing who the customers are.
However she would also like to see the product used in mainstream functional foods, where it could have a role in low fat products such as muffins, especially those aimed at lactose intolerant consumers.
NutraGammax is to be distributed in the US by Performance Ingredients which also represents ImmunoLin.
Samples of NutraGammax are currently being sent out to potential clients, and Stevenson said the company has an initial target of selling 23,000 kgs of NutraGammax a year - a volume which is expected to increase over time.