Clear Within leverages DolCas Biotech’s turmeric extract touting boost in bioavailability

(All images credit: DolCas Biotech and Clear Within).

21 Mar 2023 --- Supplement company Clear Within will use DolCas Biotech’s turmeric extract Curcugen in its upgraded and reformulated Clear Within product for bright skin. Furthermore, the company is hailing the addition as providing a significant boost to the bioavailability of its product. 

“Curcugen is a notable antioxidant, with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory actions that suggest its usefulness as a botanical anti-blemish, microbe-balancing, skin-clearing agent,” Dr. Shavon Jackson-Michel, director of medical and scientific affairs at DolCas Biotech, tells NutritionInsight.

“Curcugen has been successfully evaluated for its benefit in supporting exercise recovery, gut and mood health and joint health benefits. It is plausible to benefit many other applications given its traditional use history (like skin health) and what’s already known about its botanical benefits.” 

Arrad Rahgoshay, founder and CEO of Clear Within, adds: “Curcugen boosted the bioavailability of free curcumin in our formula 39-fold.”

“Curcugen eliminated our need to include other non-active ingredients in our formulation and freed up space in our capsules. We seized this opportunity to pack in more active ingredients, such as detox botanical, milk thistle and the mineral integral to skin and hormone support, zinc.”

Enhancing curcumin concentration  
Rahgoshay notes that Curcugen is a new twist on turmeric and offers synergy with Clear Within blended botanicals and nutrients. 

Curcugen’s antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory actions suggest its usefulness as a skin-clearing agent, notes Jackson-Michel. “Curcugen’s better bioavailability and synergistic composition, compared to a generic 95% curcuminoids extract, help to position it for optimized, skin-supporting effects,” Jackson-Michel adds.

She explains that curcuminoids and turmeric essential oils are responsible for skin-health-promoting benefits but account for less than 5% of the turmeric rhizome on average. Most curcumin extracts exclude the essential oil content to obtain the highest concentration of curcumin possible. 

Curcugen processing “helps it to take advantage of a more diverse, synergistic scope of turmeric’s diverse composition – including essential oils, but it also drives its enhanced absorption benefits.” 

“Enhancements are focused on greater bioavailability of the yellow-pigment curcuminoids and one of curcumin’s most potent antioxidant and skin-specific metabolites, tetrahydrocurcumin.” 

Product applications 
Innova Market Insights has reported that the launch activity of supplements with curcumin ingredients saw year-to-year growth of 12.6% over the last five years (2018 to 2022). In skin health (beauty-from-within), curcumin had a 14% share, with the second highest growth in the top ten positionings, with an annual increase of 39.5%. 

“Given Curcugen’s dispersion and taste advantages, it has particular benefit in nutrafood-crossover applications like gummies, chocolates, beverages shots, powder drink mixes, shakes, bars, effervescent and oral dispersible formats,” notes Jackson-Michel. 

She adds: “Its naturally occurring polar-type resins and polysaccharides boost curcumin bioavailability.” Moreover, the ingredient is water-dispersible and allows for higher concentrations of the more stable curcumin analog, bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC), than other products.

“Curcugen’s bioavailability-enhancing effects are inherent and not additive, by use of the synergism of essential oils and polar-type resins within turmeric, as opposed to non-turmeric derived or synthetic bio-enhancing agents.”

Nutricosmetics market 
According to Innova Market Insights, supplements launched for skin health tripled from 2017 to 2021, with an annual average growth of 30%. Europe has the most skin health supplement launches, followed by North America. 

Nutricosmetics is incorporating younger consumers from both sexes, continues R&D investments and makes products more convenient as holistic consumers increasingly target nutrition and beauty simultaneously. Popular ingredients in beauty-from-within supplements include biotin, astaxanthin and collagen. 

Innova Market Insights reports that launches of supplements with curcumin ingredients increased by 12.6% annually from 2018 to 2022.Clear Within evaluated turmeric extracts as the key ingredient for its beauty-from-within supplement. 

The nutricosmetic supplement is designed for adults of all ages who want to care for their skin. Each bottle contains 60 veggie capsules with vitamins and nutrients that have been tested and studied to help improve skin quality. The product is sold in health shops and online. 

Scientific evidence  
Studies have shown that turmeric extracts and curcumin can improve post-workout joint pain and cognition. 

DolCas Biotech’s pharmacokinetic data has revealed that Curcugen had a 39-fold enhanced bioavailability compared to conventional curcuminoids. A clinical study suggested the ingredient could support mood and digestive health through the gut-brain axis. 

In the US, Curcugen was been deemed effective and safe for long-term use following a study. Jackson-Michel previously told NutritionInsight that studies found turmeric in beauty-from-within formulas effective in treating common skin complaints. One pilot study found that turmeric can reduce shallow wrinkles by 20%. 

Jackson-Michel concludes that DolCas plans to continue to evaluate additional indications in its clinical study plans for Curcugen. 

By Jolanda van Hal 

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