How Biorefining Can Unlock A Nutraceutical Gold Rush

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Nutraceutical is a term combining the words “nutrition” with “pharmaceuticals” and it refers to foods that provide additional medicinal value beyond basic nutrition. [1] The term was coined in the 1980s and originally only described food components like calcium, fiber, and fish oils. Today, the list has expanded to include multiple dietary supplements, extracts, and fortified food products that represent a global industry valued at more than $383 billion as of 2022. [2]

While the size of the nutraceutical industry is impressive, it is considered small compared to other industries like agriculture, cosmetics, or energy. One prospect for improving growth in the nutraceutical sector comes down to a new practice known as biorefining, which gives businesses a more efficient way to capitalize on whatever kind of organic material they have. [3]

Biorefining is the act of using the same biomass more than once to provide multiple, distinct products. It is essentially a way of reusing or recycling the biological material to produce multiple goods from the same stock. This translates into new revenue streams, and this fact alone is starting to wake up some major industrial entities who may soon find reasons to enter the nutraceutical business.

How Biofuel Could Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

To better explain the concept of biorefining, let’s take the example of schizochytrium. Schizochytrium is a microalgae that is favored by petroleum and chemical companies to produce a biofuel that can be used in diesel engines. [4] The financial prospects of a renewable biodiesel that can be sustainably manufactured is an important step in the world’s move towards renewable energy, but this is only the beginning when it comes to income. Thanks to biorefining, these companies may have found a way to increase their revenue while they wait for their research and development teams to finalize this high value intellectual property.

The reason is that schizochytrium also contained a high number of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), more commonly referred to as omega-3 oils, and the petroleum manufacturers realized they could harvest these PUFAs without affecting their biodiesel production. [5][6] The extraction method to best achieve this goal varies depending on variables like organic material and cultivation method for the algae, but the process typically relies on either physical extraction of the biomass or through biological production of the desired components using microorganisms.

According to the chemical companies manufacturing and extracting PUFAs, their products are even better for consumers than those sourced from fish oils. In general, PUFAs can help to treat medical conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and schizophrenia. What distinguishes the algae sourced PUFAs is the lower presence of heavy metals like lead, mercury, and PCBs found in fish. The chemical manufacturers claim their omega-3s lack these contaminants, as well as the fishy flavor.

With this new product in hand, biofuel producers can branch out into a new industry, and they are looking for more opportunities to capitalize on biorefining’s potential to expand. With this in mind, PUFAs are considered lipid based nutraceuticals, but they are not the only ones. Phytosterols and polar lipids being studied for both medicinal and economic benefits. Like PUFAs, phytosterols can also be sourced from algae, like dunaliella salina, which is primarily being cultivated as a source of carotenoids. [7] Phytosterols are chemically similar in structure to cholesterol, and may help to limit long term cholesterol buildup. [8]

This may be less appealing for a biodiesel manufacturer, but several food producers have developed fortified foods like margarine or salad dressing with higher levels of phytosterols specifically aimed at improving their consumers’ health. [9] Polar lipids, the broadest lipid based nutraceutical category, have an even wider field of derivative products that can be produced with biorefining. One example, polyphosphatidylcholine, is sourced from soybeans. [10]

Soybeans have numerous industrial uses, but one of the most profitable could be to develop other biofuel initiatives. [11] This helps to create a similar profit and revenue structure to the PUFAs, algae, and biodiesel, but the big difference is the targeted medical conditions the extracted nutraceuticals will be used for. Polyphosphatidylcholine is valuable as a treatment of various internal organ related conditions benefiting the liver, heart, digestive system, and nervous system. [12]

These are all conditions that could find a large consumer market, especially for patients who prefer organic remedies to synthetic pharmaceuticals. When looking at these benefits just from these lipids based nutraceuticals, it is clear how biorefining can benefit numerous stakeholders with various organic materials. Increasing revenues, developing new industries, and improving products and treatments satisfies all parties involved with the transaction. With this in mind, it is worth considering what other organic matter components could utilize biorefining.

How Cosmetics Could Fight Cancer

Beyond lipids, one of the most common and vital food components are proteins. When looking at proteins used in food, most of them are sourced from animals and animal products. The problem is that the meat industry is not as sustainable as previously believed, and researchers are looking for new ways to cultivate protein based nutraceuticals. Biorefining may help by tapping into some under utilized biomaterials. Similar to lipids, one of the earliest studied protein based nutraceuticals stems from algae that is being used to develop other kinds of biofuels.

Certain types of red and green algae have protein contents as high as 40% per volume, and are a good source for lectins. [13] Lectins are a sugar binding protein that have been shown to have cytotoxic, anti-HIV, and antibiotic capabilities. [14] In order to harvest the lectins, biorefineries use either hydrolysis or microbial fermentation as opposed to the physical extraction employed with lipids. [15][16] In order to maximize results, it may be necessary for nutraceutical manufacturers to look beyond the energy sector to supply their biomass. With this in mind, many are turning to phycobiliproteins, which are fluorescent proteins used in food dyes and cosmetics. [17]

These are two other giant industries that could certainly profit from biorefining, the question becomes how marketable are the nutraceuticals being extracted? Phycobililproteins have recently garnered the attention of pharmaceutical companies for their anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, but what really makes phycobiliproteins special are their capability of finding free radicals. [18] Free radicals are oxidized molecules made during normal cell metabolism that damage cell material throughout the body.

The problem with free radicals is that they can often travel undetected through the bloodstream, causing multiple diseases, the most severe of which being cancer. The nutraceutical pulled from these proteins may help to prevent serious health concerns, and they are being manufactured out of the leftover material for making colorful products. At a minimum, biorefining these proteins may provide a bridge between cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

How Sugar Could Stop Spreading Viruses

Lipids and Proteins are vital food components, but the largest category overall is carbohydrates. [19] Carbohydrates are complex sugars, also called polysaccharides, and it should come as no surprise that algae is one of the first organic material being research as a source for bio-refined carbohydrate based nutraceuticals. When studying red algae, early experimentation lead researchers to a variation called Schizymenia pacifica, a preferred algae for color in the cosmetics field. [20]

The extracts from Schizymenia have been shown to have antiviral properties, specifically when combating influenza, cytomegalovirus, and HIV. These extracts fall into the category of carbohydrates called sulfated polysaccharides, and they are extracted by disrupting the organic material’s cell walls with either heat or ultrasounds while typically in a solution of water or . [21] Thanks to their anti-viral properties, sulfated polysaccharides are one of the most studied carbohydrate extracts, but it is a large field to explore. Other strains of algae have been identified that produce sulfated polysaccharides, and they each provide different medical benefits.

For some, that means properties that are antioxidant, immune-inflammatory, antimicrobial, or antilipidemic. With this in mind, different kinds of algae may allow pharmaceuticals to design tailored treatments aimed at fighting specific symptoms of these or other viruses. Keeping in mind the amount of carbohydrates compared to other food compounds, plus the potential number of treatable conditions, polysaccharide biorefining may be in high demand for pharmaceutical companies in the future.

How Food Waste Could Protect Hearts and Minds

Less common food components can also benefit from the biorefining process. Many of these compounds are smaller, appear less frequently, but may provide some powerful medical breakthroughs from otherwise discarded materials. One of the most promising are polyphenolic compounds, a ubiquitous compound found in fruits and vegetables. [22] The medical benefits these compounds provide include neuroprotective, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and neurodegenerative protections, essentially helping the hearts and brains of consumers.

What makes these compounds especially appealing is not their treatment potential, but where they are sourced from. Polyphenolic compounds can be extracted from plant material used in other industries that would otherwise be thrown away. This was first discovered when olive mills producing olive oil treated their waste water with different solvents to extract the compounds from their leftover byproducts. [23]

The waste water would have otherwise been discarded, but instead proved to be a recyclable resource for the small olive mills. This led to additional extraction techniques being employed on potato peels, grape skins, carrot shavings, and coffee grounds, all of which proved fruitful for harvesting polyphenolic compounds. [24][25][26][27]

Each case relied on plant material that was undesirable, but biorefining found value in the waste. In terms of the extraction methods used, different byproducts may respond better to different solvents and techniques, but the benefits of recycling this biomass is obvious. Food companies can still produce their primary products without interruption, but now have a secondary revenue stream by selling their leftover byproducts to nutraceutical manufacturers.

These manufacturers are able to sell products from biomass that would otherwise be thrown away, which helps lower their production cost by buying the less desirable organic material. Finally, customers benefit by having access to more diverse products and more customized treatments, many of which are sourced sustainably with less environmental impact. All of this leads to the growth of existing industries and creates synergy between otherwise disconnected industries in innovative ways.

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