FutureCeuticals teams up with Romanian institute to advance calcium fructoborate science

09-Aug-2011 - Last updated on 10-Aug-2011 at 15:10 GMT

FutureCeuticals has formed a strategic alliance with the Romania-based BioBoron Research Institute, as the company seeks to advance the science and global commercialization of its calcium fructoborate ingredient.

The ingredient, trademarked by FutureCeuticals as FruiteX-B, is reported to offer a range of benefits, including modulating inflammation and blood lipid markers in people with osteoarthritis.

The BioBoron Research Institute was established in 2009 on a grant from the European Commission's Sectoral Operational Program for Increasing Economic Competitiveness and is led by Romulus Scorei, PhD.

A search of “fructoborate” on PubMed reveals ten studies on the ingredient, 70 percent involved Dr Scorei.

“Dr. Scorei's expertise, and his body of impressive existing and ongoing research into calcium fructoborate, will greatly support current business initiatives as well as our planned aggressive push into Europe and other foreign markets,” said John Hunter, general manager at FutureCeuticals.

“The alliance with the BioBoron Research Institute, and Dr. Scorei in particular, illustrates FutureCeuticals' ongoing commitment to enriching our scientific dossier on calcium fructoborate, and of providing increased value to our FruiteX-B partners,” he added.

Science

Dr Scorei’s most recent study was a pilot study using FutureCeuticals FruiteX-B ingredient and involved 60 subjects with primary osteoarthritis (Biological Trace Element Research, doi: 10.1007/s12011-011-9083-0).

Fifteen days of supplementation with the ingredient was associated with decreases in the levels of a range of inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein and fibrinogen.

“The importance of this study is related to the beneficial actions of calcium fructoborate on systemic inflammation and perturbation of lipid metabolism for elderly individuals who otherwise might have an unfavorable prognosis in cardiovascular diseases,” wrote Dr Scorei and his co-workers.

“This study presents preliminary results that require further experimentation. A longer supplementation period is needed to ascertain whether CF is an effective anti-inflammatory agent,” they added.

The ingredient

The company’s branded ingredient is described as a patented nature-identical mineral complex. The ingredient is reported to modulate parameters associated with joint degeneration and inflammation.

The ingredient is manufactured under US Patent #5,962,049, granted in 1999, and is available exclusively from VDF FutureCeuticals, Inc., said the company.