Conagen, Blue California scale up hydroxytyrosol production and commercialization

Photo © iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino

Blue California (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), a commercial partner of Conagen (Bedford, MA), expanded its health ingredient portfolio by scaling up and commercializing Conagen’s hydroxytyrosol, a phenylethanoid ingredient found in olives and wine with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

“Hydroxytyrosol is derived from one of our four small-molecule platforms,” said Casey Lippmeier, PhD, vice president of innovation at Conagen, in a press release. “The flexibility of our phenolics platform has enabled us to rapidly scale and commercialize hydroxytyrosol and other novel ingredients, highlighting our productive innovation engine and reliability as a strategic service partner.”

Conagen’s hydroxytyrosol is colorless and odorless and is produced by using a cost-effective, sustainable natural fermentation process that has led to the filing of several patent applications.

“The Mediterranean diet is consistently rated as one of the healthiest diets, partially attributed to the use of olives,” said Blue California’s research, science and innovation officer Linda May-Zhang, PhD. “Hydroxytyrosol is one of the most potent antioxidants in olives, and research suggests the great promise of this molecule in healthy aging and potential immune support applications.”