To find EXCIPIENTS, or inactive components, all you have to do is look under “Other Ingredients” on nutrition labels. However, many people question what they really do. As usual, Makers Nutrition has the answers!
Excipients are formulated with active ingredients to protect, support, and enhance stability during the manufacturing process. Excipients are also used in supplements to help in product identification and enhance the overall functionality or safety of products during storage or use. Revenue from the global pharmaceutical excipients market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6.7% during the 2015-2021 forecast period (lifepulsehealth). Among other factors, the global market growth of these excipients is attributed to the growing demand of functional excipients and new excipients entering the market (digitaljournal).
With help from Natural Healthy Concepts, let’s dive into 8 key reasons why EXCIPIENTS are used in supplements:
EXCIPIENTS act as:
- 1.BINDERS, holding ingredients in a tablet together, keeping them from crumbling.
- 2.BULK AGENTS, adding substance to fill out the size of capsules or tablets.
- 3.COATINGS, similar to binders. Excipients keep tablets together, shielding against humidity. Coatings can also make it easier for people to swallow capsules and tablets.
- 4.ACIDULANTS, which prevent undesired bacteria from forming in liquid supplements.
- 5.FLOW AGENTS, ensuring that capsules do not stick to equipment but move smoothly through the manufacturing process.
- 6.DISINTEGRANTS, which make tablets, capsules, and so on “fast-acting.” Disintegrants help break tablets apart in the digestive tract, releasing the active ingredients into the body to be absorbed.
- 7.COLORING additives, improving the appearance of products.
- 8.FLAVORING additives, masking sometimes off-putting tastes, or simply creating a great one (blog.naturalhealthyconcepts).
Here are some of the most commonly-used EXCIPIENTS today:
- 1.MAGNESIUM STEARATE: A flow agent that is cost effective, magnesium stearate keeps ingredients from sticking to machinery during the manufacturing process.
- 2.CITRIC ACID/ASCORBIC ACID: Flavoring additives, citric and ascorbic acid are used as food additives, adding a citrus flavor to products.
- 3.CELLULOSE: While cellulose works as a binder, holding tablets together, cellulose also acts as a bulking agent because its caloric value is non-existent.
- 4.HYDROXYPROPYL METHYLCELLULOSE: Another binder, HPMC helps control the release of active ingredients, thereby promoting the absorption of supplement nutrients (blog.naturalhealthyconcepts).
Options
There is an endless variety of excipients on the market to choose from, and the improvements just keep coming. Nu-RICE® and Nu-FLOW® are two food-based, rice-based to be specific, excipients, demonstrating the constant evolution of inactive ingredients. Makers Nutrition can use these, among other excipients, as they continue to become available. A natural processing aid that hydrates ingredients, Nu-RICE® also helps to “create a variety of emulsification solutions,” making for faster and easier processing (ribus). By choosing Nu-Rice®, you would be able to include ‘rice extract’ on your nutrition label instead of chemical-sounding terms that could scare off customers—another opportune feature excipients offer. “Nu-FLOW® is made from rice hulls that are sterilized and ground to a fine powder” (ribus). Again appealing to consumers as ‘rice concentrate,’ Nu-FLOW® solves caking and other sticky manufacturing challenges. Fun Fact: It has been coined as “The Synthetics Replacer.”
Makers Nutrition
Whichever excipient(s) you choose, Makers Nutrition can help. We are a fast-growing manufacturer of dietary supplements that specializes in capsules, tablets, powders, softgels, and liquids. Our mission is to provide dietary supplement companies a full turnkey solution for contract manufacturing, order fulfillment, packaging, graphic design, and customer service. And we offer some pretty rewarding services:
- 4-6 week lead times
- High-quality products that are manufactured in a state-of-the-art, GMP certified facility
- 48-hour price quotes
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Next-generation 3PL fulfillment software
Hooked? To learn more about Makers Nutrition and request a quote, visit https://www.makersnutrition.com. Want to speak directly with one of our highly qualified specialists, give us a call at 1-844-625-3771.
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