Sibelius Natural Products secures grant to advance Long COVID-fighting chamomile extract

08 Nov 2022 --- Sibelius Natural Products has secured a grant from the Balvi philanthropic fund to further develop its Sibelius: Chamomile product – a Roman chamomile extract – to alleviate Long COVID symptoms. The funding will allow Sibelius to collaborate with researchers from the University of Buckingham to demonstrate the product’s anti-inflammatory qualities.

“The grant from the Balvi philanthropic fund will allow Sibelius to bring forward plans to test the Sibelius: Chamomile extract ingredient in a clinical setting,” Dr. Kieron Edwards, chief scientific officer at Sibelius, tells NutritionInsight.

“Having clinical data specific to our ingredients is essential, as we want to ensure that the consumer has confidence that they will get the benefit each time they take our ingredients.”

Long COVID is a multi-organ or multi-system disorder that affects many people and has various symptoms, from fatigue to an elevated risk of cardiometabolic pathologies.

“The chamomile extract will be for four therapeutic areas – respiratory health, gut health, Long COVID and functional F&B. The first area [for commercial sale] after we’ve done the GRAS study will be functional foods and beverages in the US,” Peter Leyland, CEO at Sibelius, also tells NutritionInsight.

Completing initial research
The Balvi philanthropic fund will support an initial pilot clinical study in the first half of 2023 to conduct subsequent and more extensive studies informed by the results of the pilot, Edwards explains.

Regarding what Sibelius Natural Products aims to achieve with its research, he adds: “Our pre-clinical research has shown some very interesting anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities for Sibelius: Chamomile. This includes consistently reducing the release of pro-inflammatory markers and their targets across multiple vascular inflammation models.”

Sibelius will collaborate with the University of Buckingham to demonstrate the anti-inflammatory properties of Sibelius: Chamomile.“The current research will provide clinical evidence to support these anti-inflammatory activities. Given the proposed role of vascular inflammation as one of the drivers of Long COVID, it will enable future investigation of Sibelius: Chamomile for benefits in this area.”

Defining Long COVID
A clear consensus on Long COVID is yet to be established, notes Edwards. “However, displaying effects of COVID-19 for more than 12 weeks post-infection is broadly accepted as Long COVID.”

“The symptoms described for the condition are broad but often include severe relapsing fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, anosmia, chest tightness, muscle aches, cough, insomnia, tachycardia and brain fog – all of which could have significant detrimental effects on an individual’s everyday life,” he adds.

Edwards continues to explain that the long-term effects of COVID have also been linked to altered glucose metabolism and increased risk of developing diabetes, as well as having impacts on cardiovascular health. So any improvements to these areas could profoundly affect people’s lives.

Pathological inflammation
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, 2 million adults in the UK – around 3% of the population – are still experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

It is also worth noting chronic inflammation, the constant, low-level activation of our immune system, has adverse effects across multiple areas of people’s health, so the benefits of Sibelius: Chamomile would likely go beyond Long COVID, Edwards explains.

“Success in these efforts would help to reinforce the role that traditional medicines [such as the chamoline extract] have to play in supporting the health of societies.”

According to Sibelius, pathological inflammation, particularly within the vasculature, has been widely proposed as a critical driving mechanism of Long COVID.

The symptoms of Long COVID include severe relapsing fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, chest tightness and muscle aches.“As we have already noted, the underlying causes of Long COVID are yet to be established,” adds Edwards. “However, pathological inflammation, potentially through viral persistence, immune dysregulation, or autoimmunity, has been widely proposed as a key driving mechanism.”

“Inflammation within the vasculature has been highlighted as a potential driver, given the systemic reach of the vasculature as well as evidence of tissue damage and a prolonged post-infection inflammation response in endothelial cells of infected individuals through increased shedding of ACE-2.”

Sibelius: Chamomile’s anti-inflammatory properties
The pre-clinical research with Sibelius: Chamomile supports strong anti-inflammatory activities in models of vascular inflammation, Edwards explains.

“We believe these activities could aid in dampening the inflammatory response within the vasculature (and beyond), which would help alleviate the Long COVID symptoms that people are suffering from at the source.”

Sibelius’s product can lower key inflammation markers in pre-clinical models of vascular cells, which strongly suggests the extract can potentially suppress a primary driver of Long COVID.

Solutions for COVID-19 symptoms
Also tapping into long COVID-19 solutions, DSM recently suggested that omega 3 fatty acids could be a potential treatment for the COVID-19-related cognitive impairments that some COVID-19-infected individuals have complained about.

In its consumer-oriented supplement report, DSM noted a strong desire for consumers to trade privacy for personalization, as well as a holistic focus on improving sleep and relieving stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Chr. Hansen spotlighted probiotics that enhance the immune system for the post-COVID space in a recent webinar. The Council for Responsible Nutrition’s (CRN) consumer poll on dietary supplements revealed that 75% of US citizens used these supplements at the same rate as before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following research from Norway and the UK, CRN asserted that vitamin D supplements are useful for preventing COVID-19.

By Nicole Kerr

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