Rachela Mohr, manager of business development nutraceuticals with Wacker Biosolutions, Wacker Chemie AG, Munich/Germany, said the company is interested in proofing the positive health impact of its products. “This explains why we considerably invest in research and work very closely with well-esteemed institutes and universities.”

In 2018, for example, a clinical study has shown that Wacker’s nature-identical hydroxytyrosol HTEssence has a positive effect on blood cholesterol (Siefer et al., 2018, Nutritional Medicine and Diet Care). In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, 30 healthy volunteers consumed 30 mg of hydroxytyrosol daily for a total of four weeks with two weeks washout between treatments. Results show a significant reduction of LDL cholesterol in the blood plasma by 9.4 mg/dL (-8 percent) with HTEssence. High LDL levels are one main factor for the occurrence of coronary heart diseases and arteriosclerosis. The U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) estimates that each 1 percent reduction in LDL cholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease by 1 to 2 percent. Accordingly, an LDL cholesterol reduction of 8 percent may reduce the risk for heart diseases by up to 16 percent.

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