Burgundy protects botanical extract process

Burgundy has secured a patent for its botanical extract products IridoForce and UTIrose which will help it to extend its presence in the joint health and urinary health markets.

The company based in Reyssouze, France, launched the two products at the Vitafoods conference in Geneva this May.

It uses a pioneering method to extract Harpagophytum procumbes , known commonly as devil's claw, for IridoForce.

The method was developed to boost the normal extraction process allowing for measurements of 40 per cent when tested by a UV meter, opposed to the industry standard of just 5 per cent.

That high dose makes it an attractive product on the health market, according to Burgundy sales director Gontran Gaillot.

He said: "For customers it means that you can use one capful instead of 10, which would make it easier for other products to be added, such as omega-3 for example."

Whereas standard extracts would require 40mg contained in 10 soft gels per day to have an action, the same amount of IridoForce can be put in just one.

If it is combined with other joint health ingredients like glucosamine and chondroitin, just two capsules are needed.

Harpagophytum procumbes has been linked to alleviating the systems of arthritis and rheumatism and Burgundy has been carrying out a series of clinical studies on the effectiveness of IridoForce in pain relief.

The patent for UTIRose covers for the use of extracts from the Hibiscus plant against urinary tract infection.

Both patents are European, but Gaillot says Burgundy is working on a global patent.

Gaillot came to the company at the end of last year as an architect of change for the firm, and planned from the beginning to introduce a total of seven trademarked innovative ingredients, the first three of which had their public airing at Vitafoods and were aimed at the high interest areas of vision, arthritis and urinary health.

EyesBerry, IridoForce and UTIRose are the first to be launched by Burgundy, which include the natural ingredients of berries, including bilberry, Devil's claw and the use of polyphenols from Hibiscus to help alleviate the symptoms of urinary tract infections respectively.

For now the remaining four products from Burgundy are being kept a closely guarded secret and while Gaillot would not divulge details of the new offerings he did reveal to NutraIngredients.com that two more products are hoped to be released later this year, with the first coming out by October.

The company specializes in botanical extracts since 1999 but the way forward, according to Gaillot, is concentrate on something different.

He said: "We need to do something that will catch the customer's attention.

"Today if we approach a customer the product needs to be attractive for the customer.

We need to provide something new.

"At Vitafoods there were lots of companies but many of them were offering the same thing.

Here we offer something different."

Clinical studies on the effectiveness of using devil's claw extract as an anti-inflammatory were carried out earlier this month.

Research into the effect of IridoForce on cyclo-oxygenase (COX-2), an enzyme which is linked to the inflammatory process, concluded the product inhibited upto 31 per cent of the enzymes activity.

Further studies turned up positive results into the effectiveness at combating arthritic pain by looking into the extracts ability at stimulating synthesis of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) by human and for UTIRose against urinary infections.

Gaillot said: " The results have been even much better than we expected."

However, NutraIngredients.com has not seen the full data and the results have not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal.

The company has also this month been awarded a certificate to manufacture a further range of botanical extracts at its plant, which already boasts a 225 thousand litres capacity, one of the largest in Europe

The range includes pure water extract green tea Teamax, Guaramaw, Yerbamax, and UTIRose.