Basic Knowledge about Fucoidan
Nutrition facts for the main ingredients about things like protein and iron, and how hyaluronic acid and Fucoidan are different
In Japan there are several types of established food laws, such as The Japanese Agricultural Standard Law (JAS Law), The Food Sanitation Act, The Health Promotion Law, The Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations and The Survey Law, and regulations concerning descriptions of place of origin, ingredients, weight of the contents, shelf life, food additives and calorific value that are so strict that they might be considered overly thorough.
Labeling is regulated in detail down to the ingredient level, such as the protein and calcium content, but not surprisingly, components such as Fucoidan that do not form part of the Nutrition Facts for the main ingredients, cannot be listed.
It would be impossible, because the definition itself changing and evolving through ongoing research.
For example, hyaluronic acid is a relatively familiar ingredient. Compared to Fucoidan, many of the constituent elements of hyaluronic acid have been identified, but regulation of hyaluronic acid is still far off. You often see listed "100mg of hyaluronic acid in 1 granule," but probably very few people wonder what percent of the 100mg is hyaluronic acid, and there is no way that it is 100% hyaluronic acid.
Say a "rich source of hyaluronic acid" contains 100mg of pure hyaluronic acid, what is the permissible amount inside?
In general, if there is at least 10%, it is not "overstated," it is within the generally-accepted range.
In fact, Fucoidan is the same. If 100mg of Fucoidan actually contains 10mg or more of Fucoidan, no legal issues will arise.
For example, there is no problem with taking Fucoidan that has been purified to a high purity of 85% from a raw materials manufacturer and diluting it by half, or even more than half, and labeling the entire thing "Fucoidan."
Therefore, before you know about Fucoidan there is first some basic knowledge that you absolutely need to learn about it.
The purity of substances of biological origin is different from that of chemicals. There are considerable differences between manufacturing batches, so it is true that the purity cannot be labeled on the products themselves. However nowadays you need to be careful of products that do not have their standard value and average value listed in places apart from product packaging, such as their company's websites and pamphlets.
What is Fucoidan?
Fucoidan derived from Okinawan mozuku. Fucoidan is a natural substance that is currently enjoying wide attention. It is one type of mucilaginous polysaccharide that is found in abundance in the slippery constituents of brown algae, such as mozuku, mekabu and kombu.
It was discovered in 1913 by Dr. Harald Kylin of Sweden. In recent years it has been the subject of a variety of research, most prominently in Japan, and its functionality has become a hot topic in many research fields.
One of the established definitions of Fucoidan is that monosaccharides called L-fucose containing sulfate groups (sulfated fucose) are lined up.
When these exceed a set standard (13%), wonderful functionality is exhibited.
*As long as they exceed 13%, the functionality is the same whether it is 15% or 18%.
What are sulfate groups?
They are hexagonal in shape, and are on the branches of fucose.
They contain many polysaccharides, but the special characteristic of Fucoidan is that the molecules are lined up in the sulfate groups.
The sulfate groups contained in Fucoidan are elements also found in human stomachs. They are involved in protecting the stomach mucosa from strong stomach acid. Sulfate groups are the substances that form the sulfuric acid that is well known to us, but in contrast to sulfuric acid, which is a poison, sulfate groups on their own are completely harmless substances.
Fucoidan is one type of polysaccharide, but the definition of Fucoidan continues to be that it has sulfate group fucose with sulfate groups attached to the sugar (fucose) inside L-fucose.
For a long time, the definition itself had not been confirmed, so it was named using its origin (source) as the prefix, as in mekabu-fucoidan or okinawanmozuku-fucoidan, and that could be the reason for the confusion in the current information.
Speaking of the definition of Fucoidan mentioned earlier, and it is ironic, but there are many websites that define Fucoxanthin, which is the pigment whose existence was almost unknown at the time the research was published, as something different from Fucoidan, and this has brought on the current information confusion.
Simply put, the glycanic monosaccharide fucose is lined up on the sulfate group, and all substances with Fucoxanthin, the pigment, attached are studied and understood as Fucoidan, but you need to be very careful, because the current situation in Japan is that companies whose main motive is business have separated them out in order to sell them as special characteristics of their products.
Sulfate groups that are attached to fucose create slippery gel shapes that hold on to moisture. Sulfate groups also are the mucilaginous elements in human stomach mucosa, and that is why Fucoidan is very friendly when it enters the stomach.
The special molecular structure containing sulfate groups is what gives Fucoidan its wonderful functionality.
Fucoidan derived from Okinawan mozuku is the must trustworthy, both in research studies and results from taking it.
Okinawan mozuku is a seaweed in the brown algae Chordariaceae.Okinawan mozuku grows in the mineral-rich oceans surrounding the Okinawa islands, bathed by the abundant Okinawan sun.
At the same time as demand for Okinawan mozuku as a health food has increased, its role as a source of the valuable functional ingredient Fucoidan is now garnering much excitement.
Amount of Fucoidan you can get from brown algae.
Compared to other types of seaweed (such as wakame or kombu), Okinawan mozuku contains very few elements, such as algininic acid, that interfer with extraction, which is one reason why we can provide Fucoidan at low cost. That is the reason why our Fucoidan has higher purity and a comparatively lower price than Fucoidan from other sources. Being able to obtain carefully-made high-quality products at low costs means that you can take it every day, and you can continue to take it, so this point is very important.
Our company's Fucoidan is Fucoidan that is purified to a 93.3% purity using our reliable technology. *The standard is 85% or more.
In order to ingest the 1g of mozuku extract containing this concentrated Fucoidan, you would need to eat 100 times that much mozuku, 100g of it.
| Quality documentation for the Fucoidan used by our company（PDF） * If you do not have PDF software installed on your computer, you can download it from here for free. |
We use proven-quality Fucoidan produced by Kanehide Bio at an ISO-certified factory.
How Fucoidan is Manufactured
Okinawan mozuku that has been harvested in dedicated boats is transported directly to the factory, cleaned with sterile saline, and then salted.
How Fucoidan is Manufactured/Processed
The harvested Okinawan mozuku is washed in sea water, packed in cans, and transported to the manufacturing facility (other than the harvesting period, mozuku is handled in frozen form). The manufacturing line is managed with the strictest hygiene. The mozuku starts by being given a visual inspection at the raw material stage, and receives multiple inspections at each subsequent process as it is transformed into the product.
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Differences between the information found in dictionaries and in search engines
Many websites are created for commercial or marketing purposes.
Unlike the information in dictionaries, the information found on websites is not necessarily written by specialists in the area. Plus, even if it is written by specialists, it reflects their individual interest and biases. Much of the information is not correct.
When articles are written about Fucoidan for a 'purpose,' many times what is written is diametrically opposite, depending on what that purpose is.
This causes everyone's judgment to be greatly confused.
By all means, consider this to be a piece of information, one resource for making a judgment.
That is because enhancing consumer's powers of judgment is the most important thing.The most important purpose of our company's website is to provide legitimate information in an honest way, but it is no exception in that it is a website and not a dictionary.
We have confidence that when everyone's powers of judgment have matured, you will appreciate how wonderful the content on our website is, without a doubt.
Supplementary information about Fucoidan
- What is Okinawan mozuku?
- Chordariaceae Scientific Name: cladosiphon okimuranus
A type of brown algae. A species found in the ocean stretching from Iriomotejima to Amami Oshima Island. It is rich in viscosity, and it is 1.5-3.5mm thick and 25-30cm long.
It is grown on large culturing nets spread out over the surface of the ocean.Unlike the so-called "ito mozuku," it contains over 3 times the amount of Fucoidan.
- About DNA
- Each and every of the 60 trillion cells that make up our bodies has genes called DNA. They maintain the genetic information involved in all of life's activities.
They are programmed with information that commands cells to break down and be newly created, and to die after they become old and no longer needed.
This part of the gene is harmed by free radicals and toxic substances. This causes them stop dying...This is the first step in the spontaneous mutation of a cell.
When abnormalities are generated in the genes in DNA, the cells that up until then were normal develop different characteristics, and as they gradually increase they exert an adverse effect on the activities of nearby normal cells.
The autoimmune system is originally supposed to be the system involved in rejecting these "foreign objects," but the amount of white blood corpuscles etc. that are in charge of this grows insufficient and their activity weakens, and they become unable to expel the abnormal cells.
DNA correctly passes on the information involved in life's activities.These events happen in a world that is invisible, but we need to be firmly aware of them.
- Cell apoptosis
- The reason why tadpole's tails disappear and the webbing between our fingers disappears in utero and our fingers move independently is because those parts die according to programming in the DNA of the cells in those parts of the body.
This phenomenon occurs in normal cells...In other words, apoptosis (cell suicide) is programmed into DNA information. Apoptosis allows us to live and maintain healthy bodies.