Sports nutrition’s adaptogenic avenues: Nektium’s Rhodiolife receives drug-free certification

12 Aug 2019 --- Responding to the increasing demand for natural ingredients suitable to the sports nutrition sector, botanical ingredients supplier Nektium has extended its portfolio of Rhodiolife standardized Rhodiola rosea extracts. It now brings to the market an additional product grade that is certified BSCG drug-free. This means that athletes can be assured that the ingredient does not contain banned substances set by major international sports organizations, which widens potential application avenues for the ingredient in the space.

Rhodiolife is a standardized extract of Rhodiola rosea, an officially recognized adaptogen, known as a natural substance that supports the body in dealing with persistent stress and fatigue. Both features are especially of interest for athletes and sportspeople, and the space is seeing a proliferation of adaptogenic ingredients.

“Increasing demand and interest in ingredients with an adaptogenic activity is a reality. However, only a few herbs are approved and recognized as adaptogens – Rhodiola rosea is one of them,” Bruno Berheide, Strategy & Business Development Director of Nektium, tells NutritionInsight.

Innova Market Insights reports that in 2016, the indexed number of new product launches tracked with adaptogenic infusions peaked at 25 percent CAGR (from 2012 to 2017). Between 2012 and 2017, NPD in the Supplements category saw the highest amount of growth, at 28.2 percent, closely followed by Hot Drinks (19.6 percent) and Soft Drinks (16.3 percent). 

As the sports nutrition space becomes more and more mainstream, a range of different trends are surfacing, from “real foods” to CBD alternatives. Natural mood enhancers, such as adaptogens, are also being increasingly applied to sports nutrition offerings. Innova Market Insights notes that trending ingredients with claims related to mood, focus and concentration are booming within the sports nutrition arena. These include phenylethylamine for an “intense spike in mood and sense of wellbeing,” theacrine to “support mood, focus and concentration and energy without jitters” and L tyrosine to “provide cognitive enhancement, mood and motivation improvement,” for example. 

Drug-free certification
The US-based Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG) certifies supplement companies, ingredient manufacturers, teams and athletes for more than 483 drugs, including over 272 substances that are banned by international sports organizations, among which are WADA and many more. Certification is granted per BSCG tested batch, which is then made publicly available on the BSCG website.

“An analysis of each batch is required in order to obtain certification and the analysis is carried out at third-party laboratories. The International Olympic Committee found that almost 15 percent of 634 products analyzed were contaminated with unlabeled drugs. As the number of companies using Rhodiolife in sports products is increasing, Nektium decided to add this quality feature to its Rhodiolife product,” Berheide explains.

With the new Rhodiolife sports grade, Nektium goes beyond offering Rhodiola rosea extracts to guaranteeing through a reliable, third-party certifier that the ingredient is free from banned substances in sport. “It is yet another quality attribute which will pave the way for companies to include Rhodiolife in supplement formulations for athletes,” says Berheide.

By Laxmi Haigh