“It's a mix of extracts that have photo protective properties that prevent damage from UVA and UVB radiation on the skin,” said Ignacio Cartagena, the company’s vice-president of sales and marketing, who is based in Kuala Lumpur.
“We already have it in powder but now we've introduced it in liquid form. It's big news, because nothing like this has existed before and now it has cleared all clinical trials we can start marketing it as a new part of the range.”
Functional drinks
NutroxSun is a combination of different polyphenolic compounds that are selected based on their individual effectiveness through different antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and photoprotection bioessays. And now its availability in liquid form will be tempting for functional drink producers.
Tests have shown that a daily intake of 250mg of the product will result in a 34% increase of minimal erythema dose (skin protection) after 57 days, and can reach 56% after 84 days.
The company chose the Vitafoods show in Hong Kong to send it to market, and will start producing the botanical ingredient in liquid form once it secures customers.
It has been 15 years since Monteloeder entered the Asian market through Japan, and since then, it has become a major botanicals player in Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Australasia.
However, the Spanish-based company still longs to find a niche in Indonesia and China although, according to Cartagena, an opening in the Far East market is still a long way off.
“At the moment, it is too difficult to enter China because of all the regulations. Asia as a whole has many differing standards, but China is by far the most complicated.
“One day, we would like to, but if we did so it would be via another country, like Taiwan or Malaysia, even.”
West meets East
In spite of the wealth of botanicals grown amid Southeast Asia’s massive biodiversity, Mediterranean-grown extracts have an important place across Asia, says Cartagena.
“Our ingredients are all from Spain, and that’s where we get our market edge. We grow citrus fruits and artichokes, for example, and all our research has shown that these are most effective.
“It’s true that countries like Indonesia produces a massive amount of its own botanicals, but those from the Mediterranean are very distinctive in their properties. The Mediterranean diet is very well known for these.”