Hello all, ok, it's time to provide a status update. I've been steadily working with Actinovo to get a Liposomal Trehalose product developed, and I finally have in my hot little hands the first fruit of that labor. I recently received an initial 1L sample of the product, and its final parameters are as follows:
Trehalose: 10% (active ingredient - 100mg/mL concentration rate)
Phospholipids: 13% (phosphatidylcholine - sun flower lecithin)
Ethanol: 1% (used to sterlize the bottle and cap before product filling)
Potassium Sorbate: 0.2% (preservative - yields a "sealed" shelf life of 6 months)
With the Potassium Sorbate preservative, product shelf life is:
6 months sealed at 18-25C
1-2 months unsealed at 6-8C
Without a preservative, product shelf life is:
2 months sealed at 18-25C
1 month unsealed at 6-8C
The product is only stable at temperatures between 5 C and 25 C. At any temps colder or hotter than that, and the product begins to "delaminate" at a rate proportional to the temp. Freezing immediately destroys the liposomes, and at temps of 36 C (body temp) or greater, the liposomes apparently breakdown at a fairly rapid rate.
The product does NOT taste good, and has an especially unpleasant "sour" aftertaste. However, this apparently is normal for Actinovo products, and if desired they recommend mixing their products with something else in order to increase palatability. Still they offer the option of flavoring the product with natural flavors, such as Orange,
Apple, Cherry, Strawberry, etc, etc… in order to try and mask the aftertaste.
I have been taking a total of ~2 tablespoons (~30mL) of the product per day (i.e., one tablespoon in the morning, and one at night) since receiving it, and have experienced zero gastrointestinal problems or side effects so far. However, I am considering splitting this daily dose into three (3) equal doses of 2 teaspoons each, taken in the morning, afternoon, and then evening.
Actinovo claims they still have enough raw Trehalose on hand from what I shipped to them earlier, to produce "at least" 10L of product.
So, this is all well and good, but here’s the rub…
When I asked them what laboratory method they used to confirm and verify that they had in fact successfully generated a liposomally encapsulated trehalose product (as they said they had), they stated that they did NOT use a validation method after the production. Rather, they simply started with a solution of 100g/L of trehalose as input, and ONLY their experience with making these types of products tells them that they were successful. They didn't have any empirical data, and apparently had no way to actually test/verify the production success beyond "their experience tells them they were successful". As such, I gather that because the solute appeared to have fully dissolved, did not appear to come out of solution after production, and could no longer be tasted in the final product following the encapsulation process, that was enough to convince them that the whole production process was successful.
While that sounds a bit dubious to me, and at first blush seems to be little better than the various homespun liposomal encapsulation methods that various people have reported having success with, I am "somewhat" inclined to believe that given Actinovo's proven expertise in making these types of products, it is a bit more reasonable to assign some additional weight to their claims of success.
At my current dose rate of 30mL per day, the product lasts me just a bit over one month per liter. So I figure I can safely purchase at least 5L at a time for my own personal use without any risk of spoilage.
I'm unsure about the amount they are currently going to charge, but the last quote they gave me back in October 2018 for a minimum 5L production run including shipping was 730 euros (~$826 dollars). Note that the 730 euro amount does NOT include any of my costs to procure and ship the raw trehalose product to them.
Given all of the above caveats, I wondering If anyone here is still interested in purchasing some quantity of this product, and if so how much?
However, given that Actinovo apparently can't provide any real assurances or guarantees that they've actually produced what they think they have, I would totally understand if that might turn y'all off to the idea, especially given the probable price of this stuff.
Regards!