Interest in Fucoxanthin Swells as Industry Searches for Next Hot Weight-Loss Ingredient

Interest in Fucoxanthin Swells as Industry Searches for Next Hot Weight-Loss Ingredient
Nutrition Business Journal

Garden of Life’s founder Jordan Rubin likes to say that the story behind the creation of the company’s ultra successful weight-loss supplement fücoTHIN could be the basis for an adventure novel. The story involves the dedication of a Russian scientist, Zakir Ramazanov, PhD, who traveled the world studying the health benefits of sea vegetables and, from this work, discovered a carotenoid found in edible brown seaweed called fucoxanthin that promotes fat burning within abdominal fat—the type of fat that is linked to heart disease and diabetes. Fucoxanthin became the basis for Garden of Life’s fücoTHIN product, but weeks before its launch, Ramazanov, 51, died from an allergic reaction to a new asthma medication he was taking, thus never being able to see how lucrative his discovery would become.

After being introduced in fall 2007, fücoTHIN—which contains a patent-pending combination of fucoxanthin and pomegranate seed oil called Xanthigen—quickly rose up the sales chart. The product was the No. 1 selling dietary supplement in the natural channel for the 52-week period ending in mid-June 2008, according to SPINS. fücoTHIN has been joined by numerous other fucoxanthin formulations, including Puritan’s Pride’s Fucoxanthin, Natures Benefit’s Fucoselean, Nutrimax’s FucoXanthin Plus and network marketer OceanGrown International’s Ocean Breakers Burn. Each of these products contain varying amounts of fucoxanthin, which is often combined with other ingredients such as green tea extract, Hoodia gordonii and Cha’ de Bugre (a plant used in Brazil for appetite suppression and weight loss).

Nutrition Business Journal takes an in-depth look at fucoxanthin—and other weight-loss supplements—in our upcoming Sports Nutrition & Weight Loss issue, which publishes later this month. To order your copy of the issue or to subscribe to NBJ, go to www.nutritionbusinessjournal.com.

© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.