Unlocking powerful plants: Eevia Health validates bioefficacy of its Arctic botanical extracts

09 Oct 2023 --- Finnish botanical producer Eevia Health has verified the bioefficacy profiles of its wild-collected organic ingredients from Arctic forests to help determine which products require further clinical investigation. According to the company, these forests are an essential factor in the quality and efficacy of its products.

“The significant health potential of plant polyphenols in general is well known. The polyphenols we extract from the Arctic wild-harvested materials tend to come in higher concentrations than from plants in other areas of the world,” Stein Ulve, CEO at Eevia Health, tells Nutrition Insight.  

“They often come with a broader polyphenol profile, such as the six A-type proanthocyanidins in lingonberry compared to the four A-type proanthocyanidins in cranberry. Due to the very clean soil and air, the materials come with very low levels of undesirable compounds and pollutants, often less than 10% of comparable material from other regions.”  

Ulve explains that these factors are the main reason that Eevia Health’s products provide the health benefits they do. The company’s processing and product development only enhance these values and benefits. 

Eevia Health purifies the most bioactive compounds, he continues. “In some instances, we may be able to extract and purify certain ratios of different compounds to remove the cytotoxic potential of some compounds.” 

In our latest NutriPod episode, Ulve told us that Eevia Health had tested its ingredients on Eurofins’ BioMAP platform to analyze their effects on human disease models and translational biomarkers. 

BioMAP bioefficacy profiles 
Ulve explains there were many reasons for choosing the BioMAP platform. “One is the opportunity to measure the equivalence of our products versus the competition, objectively. With BioMAP, we got a bioefficacy profile comparison between different products, which is unique or hard to attain for a small company like Eevia Health.” 

“You may also compare with a library of 4,500 other compounds that Eurofins has. The human cell bioassays are extremely well tested, therefore, the results provide strong data points with which we can make further decisions.”

Ulve underscores that the platform’s analysis helped to get a rational basis for choosing further clinical investigations of the company’s products. 

Eevia Health used BioMAP to create a bioefficacy profile of its ingredients, compared to competing products.“However, the data, including the comparison with competitors, stand independently. Therefore, the results are useful to demonstrate bioefficacy equivalence with products that may tout otherwise or where doubt of such equivalence exists,” says Ulve.  

“We also combine the BioMAP analysis with the chemical characterization of each product. The combined data gives us a strong basis to evaluate the herbal equivalence. In cases where our products provide significantly better responses than the competitor, we also have material that can be used to market our products.” 

He highlights that one of the company’s extracts had a better response on multiple biomarkers with 1/3 of the dosage of a competing product. Other Eevia Health extracts also showed bioactivity on more biomarkers than the competitor, which Ulve notes can be used in marketing. 

Cellular recycling 
One of the health areas that Eevia Health focuses on is cellular recycling — the fundamental processes in human bodies to break down and reuse old cell parts and waste products from cells. 

Ulve explains that this process — autophagy — tends to slow down with age, causing cell material to accumulate inside the cell, which in turn may lead to apoptosis or cell death. 

“Autophagy is our body’s natural cleaning process, which ensures that our cells can operate more efficiently and stay healthy. The autophagy restores damaged cell waste material into fully functioning cell parts. It also discharges nonfunctional cell material, and it can eliminate pathogens that may damage the cell, like viruses and bacteria.”

“Eevia has products that induce the autophagy process, which is helpful against the age-related decline in the activity level of this process. The exact mode of action for this induction is being studied, but the positive effect on autophagy biomarkers has been proven in cell systems and mice.”

Wild-harvesting from the Arctic 
Eevia Health sources most of its ingredients from the wild in the forests of the Finnish Lapland. Ulve notes that the Finnish forests and their virtues are “very close to the heart of the Finnish people,” adding that it takes a central place in their lives and is seen as a source of perseverance, resilience, peace, harmony and pride.  

“Prudently taking care and managing the forest we love for so many reasons comes easily for most people,” he highlights. 

Eevia Health uses guidelines from industry associations and the government in its wild-collection from Finnish forests.Eevia Health harvests its wild-collected materials under multiple guidelines from forest and industry associations and the government. These guidelines are directed to ensure the minimum impact on the forest ecosystem and the preservation of these renewable nutrition resources. 

“The guidelines convey a range of best practices, policies and principles that operators must follow. These range from broad principles to details such as how the berries will be removed from the plant to ensure the wild growing plant itself is not damaged,” Ulve explains. 

“Key measures are to minimize motorized movements in the forest, minimize footprints and other activities which may damage the heather, plants and the forest floor, during harvesting.” 

Organic Finnish forests 
Eevia Health states that 25% of the world’s certified organic forests are in Finland and that 99% of Finnish Lapland forests are organic-certified. 

“Since Finland has some forest owners, such as the State of Finland, who own large swaths of forest that are remote from cities, road systems, industry, etc., it might have been easier than in other countries to have large forest areas certified,” explains Ulve.  

He adds that Finland holds many non-profit organizations, interest groups and industry associations, such as the Forest Owners Association, as well as certifying institutions that have been protagonists and activists for certifying the country’s forests. 

“The forestry and food industries also find that organic certification brings added value to the collected natural products,” continues Ulve. 

“Organic certification is one way to ensure the purity of the food and forestry products. Organic products are in a growing demand in the world markets. These are the main reasons Finland has the largest organic collection area in the world, almost 4.6 million hectares.” 

By Jolanda van Hal