Natural ingredients thrive: Experts discuss R&D challenges and market opportunities

19 Feb 2020 --- Natural ingredients provide a sustainability-oriented avenue for the nutrition industry and offer a vast scope of human health benefits. With this in mind, industry has been increasingly using natural ingredients to deliver value-added products in response to parallel consumer concerns for human and planetary health. However, as the naturality trend continues to transform the nutrition industry, working with natural ingredients may be easier said than done. NutritionInsight speaks with key players on the origins of natural ingredients’ market boom and obstacles in R&D. Experts explain how natural ingredients are setting new standards and redefining food and supplement NPD practices.

“The line between natural and unnatural ingredients can sometimes be fuzzy,” says Dr. Benny Antony, Joint Managing Director at Arjuna Natural. “A natural ingredient should be a product that is derived from plant, animal or microbial sources, from some amount of physical and basic chemical processes, in such a way that the chemical reactions do not drastically alter the chemical structure of the natural product.”

Natural ingredients consist of more than just an (extract of an) organism isolated from plant, animals or microorganisms, affirms Dr. Sreeraj Gopi, Chief Scientific Officer of Aurea Biolabs. “Natural products constitute the natural wealth of the country and represent an important source of livelihood, from agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals and more. They always act as a bridge between traditional knowledge and most modern technologies.”

Julia Díaz, Head of Marketing for Pharmactive Biotech, identifies some of the key factors driving consumer demand for natural ingredients as growing awareness among consumers for preserving personal health naturally and the current global trend for more respectful consideration for the environment.

“Natural ingredients are an excellent alternative to support the growing demand of sustainable products, but it is important to dive deep into the production process, from farm to final product, valuing the eco-friendly extraction in the case of botanicals,” she underscores. Moreover, natural ingredients can bring low or no side effects on pharmaceutical drugs. Additionally, they can benefit from low recommended doses – making the finished product lighter – as well as natural colors and flavors, explains Díaz.

Botanical products are well-recognized by consumers for their associations with well-being.Humankind “blessed by nature”
Botanical products are well-recognized by consumers for their associations with well-being and strong clinical evidence that endorses them to be effective and secure, Díaz emphasizes. “By moving to an all-natural ingredient based line, customers are assured that the products are free of harmful synthetic chemicals, which may have long term concerns. This also usually translates into better sustainable sales and product lines. In the long term, natural products will tend to yield a better market presence, unique selling propositions and positions as well as improved and sustained profitability for the value chain that brings them to the market,” Dr. Antony adds.

In terms of adaptability, Vijaya Rani, Aurea Biolabs’ Head of Marketing, also assures that natural ingredients can still be well incorporated in and food and beverage products in a wide range of natural product applications. Examples include ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages and ready-to-mix (RTM) powders, liquid shots, gel sachets, gummies, tablets and capsules as prefered forms of “everyday nutrition.”

Overcoming R&D obstacles
Despite the health halo natural ingredients may bear, certain technical challenges regarding natural product development still remain. “In nature, products usually exist along with other products, including very closely related ones. The concentrations of individual active ingredients also tend to be low. This translates into enormous challenges of identifying, isolating and purifying particular isolates of interest in commercially viable quantities,” Dr. Antony further explains.

Usually, the process of isolation would have to rely on multiple steps and of large volumes of raw materials, he continues. “Identifying and standardizing the right compound to isolate and conducting repeatable scientific studies are laborious processes, which go into making a natural extract a natural ingredient.”

Avoiding synthetic excipients and ultra-processes has also posed a particular hurdle at Pharmactive, its Head for R&D, Alberto Espinel, tells NutritionInsight. Parrying this, Pharmactive developed AFF ON Cool-Tech, an eco-friendly technology, natural proprietary extraction process that maintains peak freshness and purity and does not use harmful solvents, synthetics or additives of any kind. 

The availability of raw material with proven quality, reliable supply and sufficient production quantity is a particular challenge, says Espinel. This can be met with long-term and accelerated stability studies as a strong determinant of the success rate of a product, Dr. Gopi of Aurea Biolabs concurs. 

Other common issues include shelf-life stability, freshness and potency. “While many extracts may be stable, one has to define and design optimal storage conditions and methods for them,” notes Dr. Antony. Bioavailability is also a threat to the success of natural products, Dr. Gopi adds, but this hurdle can be overcome by utilizing innovative technologies to ensure the bioefficacy of the product. To overcome this, Aurea Biolabs uses its Polar/Non Polar Sandwiching (PNS) delivery system that creates a natural matrix by encapsulating a bioactive with polar and nonpolar molecules of natural origin. In addition to well established improved bioavailability and bioefficacy, PNS allows ingredients to be excipient free, non-gmo, and organic.

The natural ingredients sector is one of the most innovative in the industry mainly due to the huge possibilities that nature still offers for innovation.What’s next for natural ingredients?
The natural ingredients sector is one of the most innovative in the industry mainly due to the huge possibilities that nature still offers for innovation, says Díaz. “Considering that around 30 percent of pharmaceutical drugs come from active compounds present in plants and that only 298,000 species are discovered by humans, there are plenty of opportunities to find new bioactives, flavors and colorants,” she predicts. 

Meanwhile, Rani of Aurea Biolabs highlights that as “the soul of Ayurveda,” natural ingredients have a bright future in nutraceutical applications. “We use cutting-edge technology to bring the goodness of nature in pure form and we’re bringing together new-age technologies and age-old wisdom to better the quality of life and promote healthy living,” she asserts. 

The full potential of natural ingredients remains to be seen, as innovative companies and organizations strive to replace synthetic with natural and sustainable solutions. “Each natural source holds a wealth of natural compounds, only a fraction of which have been studied so far. There is so much more potential for research – and therefore, also for new products,” Dr. Antony concludes.

By Anni Schleicher