The Germany-headquartered company said in a press release that in launching the starches its aim is to “meet nutraceutical companies’ requirements for premium quality, multi-functional ingredients, while assuring on-time delivery and supply”.
DFE Pharma said its new maize starch portfolio offers “versatile options to meet nutraceutical companies’ formulation needs as binders, fillers, disintegrants, besides other applications”.
It enlarges the company’s already sizeable portfolio of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical excipients, which include starch, lactose, MCC (microcrystalline cellulose), inhalants and superdisintegrants.
The launch also capitalises on the current growth in nutraceuticals. DFE Pharma said: “Nutraceutical products are increasingly gaining attention during the past few years - even more since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as consumers are becoming more and more aware about wellbeing, self-care and disease prevention.”
Multi-functional starches
Starches function as diluents, disintegrants and binders in tablets, as a replacement for gelatine in soft gels, as a functional biopolymer in microencapsulation and as a base for thin film coatings - making them an extremely versatile excipient.
There are three grades within DFE Pharma’s new range: Nutroféli ST100 (native starch); Nutroféli ST200 (partially pregelatinised starch) and Nutroféli ST300 (fully gelatinised starch).
Native maize starches are widely used as disintegrants, fillers and binders in nutraceutical and solid dose forms. DFE Pharma said its ST100 native maize starch is typically added to formulations to act as a disintegrant or as a binder in wet granulation.
ST200 is a partially pregelatinised maize starch that is said to perform a multi-functional role as binder, disintegrant and flow-aid. DFE Pharma describes it as “an ideal excipient for nutraceutical manufacturers who seek optimal excipient solutions with minimal ingredients and high efficiencies”.
Gelatinised maize starches
Fully gelatinised maize starches have a higher intrinsic binding capacity than native maize starches and partially pregelatinised starches. DFE Pharma is pitching Nutroféli ST300 as a binding agent that helps reduce process complexities and production costs in the development of nutraceutical formulations involving wet granulations.
It does this by eliminating the extra step of creating a starch paste, as it can be added directly to the granulation liquid or the dry blend.
DFE Pharma is jointly owned by Royal FrieslandCampina, one of the world’s top multinational dairy companies, and CVC Capital Partners, a global investor that recently acquired 50% share. DFE Pharma has production locations in the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand and India.
Global Sales offices in Germany, the United States, Singapore, Japan, India, Brazil and China are responsible for sales in more than 100 countries worldwide. The company currently employs 360 people across nine countries.