Polyphenolics President James Kennedy, PhD spoke with NutraIngredients-USA reporter Hank Schultz to discuss the evolution of polyphenol nutritional science. In this video interview, Kennedy also revealed exciting new research that may impact the sports nutrition and digestive health and anti-aging markets. This interview took place during this year’s SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas.
“Polyphenols have been associated with a good diet, so it has been natural to want to understand what they do. What we have done as a company is to try to understand what is behind these things that could be beneficial to our health,” Kennedy told Schultz. “The early work focused on the tannins in the grape seed extracts and their abundance of antioxidant activity, and from that the first product, MegaNatural® Gold, was developed.”
Kennedy explained that the grape seeds were found to contain polyphenols with a wide range of molecular weights. Polyphenolics found that the lowest molecular weight material stimulates nitric oxide production which leads to better blood flow and supports healthy blood pressure. This research led to the development of its next product, MegaNatural®-BP.
“So you can see this transformation from a general grape seed extract that has antioxidant properties to one where we’re actually targeting specific parts of that size distribution to get functional activity,” Kennedy elaborated.
Kennedy revealed that next year, Polyphenolics plans to market its newest ingredient, MegaNatural®-AZ, which focuses on improved cognitive performance. “This will have tremendous application with mental alertness (and) athletics,” he commented. “How can we improve behavior so we can perform better?” He added that Polyphenolics is also interested in examining the benefits to maintaining better cognitive health as we age.
Polyphenolics is also exploring the benefits of grape seed extract on gut health. Kennedy explained that research is showing that the tannins with larger molecular weight have unique prebiotic activities.
Kennedy reflected on the connection between Polyphenolics’ advancements in polyphenol nutritional research and what is known about the Mediterranean diet. “We’ve been taking in these phenolics in our diets for a millennium,” he commented. “And meta-analysis has shown that people who have a high intake of flavonoids are healthier people.” He concluded, “As a company, we are trying to understand: What are the pearls within our normal diet that are causing these benefits … and chasing them!”
