Let’s explore what a cyclodextrin complex is and how it is used in our industry. Our gastrointestinal tract typically has a poor absorption rate of plant extracts and isolated plant compounds that are used as ingredients in supplements, we’ll refer to these as “Phytonutrients”. Phytonutrients of course have many health benefits, but unfortunately have poor absorption or “bioavailability” (how much product is actually absorbed and used) in the human body. This is because Phytonutrients are known to be lipophilic (fat loving) and have a challenging time dissolving in the water-based juices in your gut. Further, Phytonutrients can be metabolised by enzymes and fermented by bacteria. For the reason of poor bioavailability, scientists have developed cyclodextrin complex delivery systems to optimise the bioavailability of Phytonutrients. Many new supplements on the market have begun including the ingredient cyclodextrin in their products based on research performed in scientific studies. The research suggests cyclodextrins increase the rate of absorption and bioavailability of Phytonutrients.

You’ll notice all these new cyclodextrin-inclusive supplements just put their active ingredient(s) with cyclodextrin together in a capsule. However, scientific studies do not do this. Scientific studies go through expensive and complicated processes to pre-complex the phytonutrient within the cyclodextrin (create the delivery system). Basically, scientific studies don’t just combine both Phytonutrients and cyclodextrin in a capsule and hope for the best. Scientists pre-complex the Phytonutrient with the cyclodextrin before administration. 

You may be thinking, “well then why wouldn’t you just put cyclodextrin with a Phytonutrient in a capsule since capsules are easier to handle and take?” Good question! When a Phytonutrient is accompanied by cyclodextrin in a capsule and has not been pre-complexed, the resulting bioavailability is better than a Phytonutrient being consumed alone. The digestive process by chance will naturally utilise part of the cyclodextrin to complex some of the Phytonutrient during digestion, but taking a pre-complexed cyclodextrin in a liquid form removes that chance by providing a far superior absorption and bioavailability of the Phytonutrient.

There are many factors that determine how much cyclodextrin the human body can naturally complex with a Phytonutrient. Factors such as, your stomach and intestine contents, the time it takes the capsule to break down and dissolve in your gut, how acidic your stomach is, whether there are other lipids (fats) in your digestive tract that will interact with the cyclodextrin, and many more variables. Essentially, you can’t leave it up to the body to form a perfect cyclodextrin complex, which is exactly why scientific studies go to the expensive and complicated effort to pre-complex their cyclodextrins with the Phytonutrient. The scientists use a pre-complexed formula, so that a standardised control can be administered to subjects without a range of different absorptions occurring.
APOC’s liquid cyclodextrin complex-inclusion formula is inline with the results found within the scientific studies of these Phytonutrients.

 

The take-home message: having a Phytonutrient accompanied by cyclodextrin in a capsule will give you more bang for your buck than just taking the Phytonutrient by itself. However, this will never compare with the scientific standards of a pre-complexed formulation like APOC’s. APOC has achieved and been granted a patenting manufacturing method to solve this problem, by pre-complexing cyclodextrin Phytonutrient inclusions. The consumer has peace of mind knowing that they can physically see that the desired Phytonutrient ingredient in APOC’s product is fully pre-complexed and dissolved within the formula. The consumer also knows that their body has the best chance of absorbing the maximum amount of the ingredient, minimising any going to waste.