NORTH BERGEN, N.J.—The Canadian Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD) granted Frutarom a product license for its Benolea® cardiovascular health support ingredient. As of December, Benolea will be available to local dietary supplement manufacturers in Canada.
Benolea supports heart health by maintaining healthy blood pressure levels. A recent clinical study showed an extract of olive leaf (Olea europaea) was effective in patients with stage-1 hypertension, demonstrating that Benolea can lower blood pressure.
Benolea will be marketed in Canada by CK Ingredients, an Ontario, Canada-based distributor of specialty food and supplement ingredients.
According to The Heart and Stroke Foundation, research affirms that heart/cardiovascular disease is the No.1 killer in Canada. It is also the most costly disease in Canada, placing the greatest burden on the national health care system. Based on the latest available heart disease and stroke statistics, about 40 percent of Canadians have high blood cholesterol (Statistics Canada, 2012), and nearly 20 percent of Canadian adults (approximately 6 million) have high blood pressure (Wilkins et al, 2010).
Since ancient times, olive leaves have been used for medicinal purposes, exhibiting a wide range of activity, especially for cardiovascular health. Benolea offers the health benefit of olive leaves in a convenient form for dietary supplement manufacturers.
Earlier this year, Frutarom also released results from a study examining curcumin’s bioavailability.