Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychostimulant in the world. It has been estimated that caffeinated beverages, including tea, coffee and maté, as well as caffeinated sodas and energy drinks, are consumed by more than 80% of the world’s population and up to 89% of consumers in the US.
However, increasing concerns regarding adverse reactions to caffeinated products prompted the US FDA to issue a guidance to industry in April 2018, warning that products containing high concentrations of caffeine can present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury and are a significant public health threat.
In 2014, based on growing reports of adverse reactions to caffeine, Nektium’s R&D and Innovation team began a global search for a safe and effective functional food ingredient that could be used as a natural alternative to caffeine. The team’s research imperative was to develop a rapidly acting botanical extract with both mental energy and sports performance benefits that was free from cardiovascular and other side-effects.
An initial selection of 50 botanical candidates was made and carefully reviewed in terms of safety, potential efficacy, plant chemistry, pharmacology, sustainability of supply and cost of production, among other criteria. Multivariate analysis showed an intriguing pattern among the candidate plants, revealing that a number of the 50 plants all, surprisingly, contained appreciable concentrations of the flavone mangiferin.
As there is a well-established history of safe food and beverage use of mango leaves — Mangifera indica — which are rich in mangiferin, a proprietary standardised extract of Mangifera indica leaves was developed by Nektium and trademarked as Zynamite. Nektium’s R&D team then proceeded with a number of preclinical and clinical research studies.
The results have been overwhelmingly positive and the scientific studies on Zynamite have demonstrated a significant improvement in both mental and physical energy; best of all, no negative side-effects were reported.
The convergent results of Nektium’s in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies, and double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled clinical studies, demonstrate that Zynamite is safe and effective, enhances mental activity and calculation performance, gives faster reaction times, reduces stress and fatigue, and enhances mean power output and peak power output during sports performance without any negative side-effects.
Nektium’s R&D team succeeded in their quest to find the perfect alternative to caffeine and they discovered one that is far superior in its mechanism of action. Zynamite was launched at Vitafoods Europe in 2018 and was presented with the Nutraingredients Sports Nutrition Ingredient of the Year award.
Since then, Nektium has been delighted to see numerous finished products on shelves in the global market containing Zynamite.
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