Helios CORP and Sunbio announced that they received new dietary ingredient (NDI) approval for EstroG-100. The firm says that its menopause-support ingredient underwent a Phase-2 trial this year in which there were “significant improvements in eight out of 10 categories utilizing the Kupperman Index during clinical review.”

Milan, Italy-based Indena announced that its Meriva ingredient (curcumin with soy phosphatidylcholine) received the “Best New Product” award through the European Outsourcing Awards. In separate news, Clinical Ophthalmology recently published data from a year-long, 122-patient trial showing that 600 mg of Meriva may help those with recurring anterior uveitis, a condition in which inflammation in the eye causes pain, redness and decreased vision, in some patients. Of the 106 people who completed the study, only 18% had symptoms, says the firm.

Glanbia Nutritionals, headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland, will now distribute GanedenBC30 from Ganeden Biotech, Inc. in North America.

InSea2 (a brown seaweed-derived ingredient from innoVactiv of Rimouski, QC, Canada) will be supplied to Life Extension for its new Natural Glucose Absorption Control supplement. InSea2, says the company, “exhibits a dual mechanism of action against digestive enzymes involved in carbohydrate digestion and assimilation.”

Nutraceutix, Inc. of Redmond, WA won the 2010 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation of the Year. The firm won for its LiveBac processing and BIO-tract probiotic delivery technology, which are said to improve probiotic survival from manufacture through digestion.

Nutrition Journal published some new facts about Allendale, NJ-based Lonza, Inc.’s ResistAid larch arabinogalacatan ingredient. Researchers from Medicus Research LLC gave 45 adults who were not vaccinated against Streptococcus pneumoniae (which causes pneumonia) the extract or a placebo for 72 days. Everyone received the vaccination after the first month. According to the research, ResistAid “increased the antibody response of healthy volunteers to the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine compared to placebo.”

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, December 2010