Manufactured in Japan, CoQ10-WS is said to be a free-flowing, water-soluble powder, available in both 10 and 20 percent concentrations. It is suitable for use in beverages, tablets and capsules.
Blue California EVP Cecilia McCollum said in a bioavailability study conducted in Japan, the new ingredients showed an "impressive improvement" in absorption compared to standard CoQ10.
The Rancho Santa Margarita-based company is not the first to offer a version of the coenzyme that promises better bioavailability; in March DSM made similar claims about its new All-Q CoQ10 product, which also uses a starch-based powder as a carrier for 10 per cent purity CoQ10.
Soft Gel Technologies announced in January that it had developed a completely solubilized form of CoQ10, called CoQsol-CF. A small trial suggested it to be 250 percent more bioavailable than traditional CoQ10 softgels.
The heat produced during commercial production of CoQ10 results in the formation of crystals, which have a reduced surface area and solubility. Soft Gel said its patent-pending technology, which requires no synthetic surfactants, involves dissolving the crystals and preventing them from reforming. This means that the product is completely soluble at room temperature and therefore more readily absorbed by the body.
CoQ10 is understood to play a role in helping cells to convert oxygen into energy.
Demand for products containing it has been hot in the United States, thought to have been triggered in part by scientific research indicating that it could aid cardiovascular health and help slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.
A total of 260 dietary supplement and skin care products containing CoQ10 are listed in Mintel's Global New Products Database as having launched in the United States since 2000. Of these, 194 were supplements and 66 were skin care products.
In Europe, meanwhile, CoQ10 has proved more popular in skin care formulations, thanks to its anti-aging antioxidant properties. There have been 117 skin care and cosmetics entries in the database since 2000, compared to 40 for supplements.