Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Neptune Technologies & Bioressources?Mr. Allard: I guess the best definition of Neptune would be that of a biotechnology company dedicated to the extraction, research, development, and commercialization of proprietary marine health ingredients of high nutritional and therapeutic value. I need to emphasize, though, Neptune's great respect and sense of significance for the marine environment. This explains why only widely abundant biomass with very high fishing quotas is selected for processing at Neptune. Once a biomass fulfills Neptune's criteria for abundance and purity as well as the nutritive specifications, it is processed under GMP conditions via Neptune's proprietary extraction process, "Neptune OceanExtract." The first biomass Neptune worked with is Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba), from which Neptune Krill Oil (NKO) is produced. Krill is a shrimp-like deep-water crustacean, a zooplankton that lives in the cold Antarctic waters and represents the bottom of our food chain. Krill is the most abundant biomass on earth and one of the richest in nutrients, enough to be the only source of nutrition for gigantic whales. The NKO trademark has been registered in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia as Neptune Krill Oil. Another very important biomass selection criterion is the existence of health ingredients with potential health benefits for the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries, something that's going to bring a health benefit that is not yet available on the market or something that's going to add to one already on the market. As an example, there are close to 85 different species of krill around the world. We have looked at several species, but the one that we have selected is called Euphausia superba, which is found in Antarctica. The reason is because this specific species is highly concentrated in three very important components: phospholipids, omega-3, and astaxanthin. Those three components, naturally occurring together in that specific krill species in perfect ratios, along with our cold-vacuum extraction process that protects and maintains these nutrients intact are responsible for the great results we have demonstrated through our clinical studies. The first three double-blind clinical studies were on premenstrual syndrome (PMS), chronic inflammation and osteoarthritis, and another on dislipidemia and cholesterol management. Those three studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of NKO on these conditions within statistical and clinical significance. As I mentioned earlier, the first task of our process is to identify the appropriate species. The second task is to make sure that the harvest is done correctly. Removing krill from the water is like removing a whale from water - when you remove a whale from the water, it collapses. Thus, finding companies that are harvesting krill appropriately was also another important task. We found Japanese and South Korean fishery companies that are specialized in krill harvest. In fact, Japanese and Russians have been harvesting krill for close to 30 years for its nutritive value. They are eating it or using it as bait for fishing. They are using a technique in which the krill are deeply frozen immediately upon removal from the water. That helps krill remain whole and maintain its nutritive value. Considering that krill hibernates in the winter, it is very rich in its nutritive components only at the end of the Antarctic summer. Therefore, the right choice of the harvesting season is of paramount importance. I need to point out that Krill fulfills all our criteria since it is naturally pure and safe. They live deep in the cold water and they eat algae underneath the icebergs; they are never exposed to those contaminants that you find on the surface of the water or in the warmer water envelope. Finally, when it is brought to Canada, we have our unique patented extracted process called OceanExtract, which allows us to extract the oil from the krill and maintain the integrity of its natural internal composition. What we get from the krill is exactly what you find in the original krill biomass. We never add anything to it, and we're not removing anything from it. We just extract an oil that concentrates all naturally occurring nutrients, like phospholipids, astaxanthin, Omega-3 (EPA, DHA) fatty acids and a novel flavonoid proprietary to Neptune. This is what we have branded, Neptune Krill Oil - NKO - and what we have used in all our research.
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