KITOZYME’S VEGETAL BIOPOLYMERS
[BIZ/SCI-TECH: Liège, December 21] The Mestdagh Group and the Montulet family recently made a EUR 1.425,000 investment in KitoZyme through Valois. SRIW, the Walloon Regional Investment Group is also adding EUR 250,000. KitoZyme 2006 looks to be a good year for KitoZyme, as the company completes construction of its GMP-compliant plant for producing pure and ultra pure chitosan for the medical and pharmaceutical industry (GMP = good manufacturing practices). KitoZyme will make a final choice of distributors following an in-depth analysis of the international players on the cosmetics and nutraceuticals’ markets. It will be a tricky selection process for the managers, caught as they are between marketing options and logistical constraints, but the final decisions will undoubtedly be made in 2006. What exactly does KitoZyme manufacture? KitoZyme's biopolymers KitoZyme also uses the caps of button mushrooms to produce ingredients for the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Innovative by reason of vegetal origin, Ordinary chitosan is produced from the shells of crustaceans and shellfish, KitoZyme's innovation resides in the fact that it produces similar kinds of biopolymers from vegetal sources that are not only renewable, traceable and hypoallergenic, but also result in consistent quality. Biopolymer uses To date, the company has invested over EUR 4.5m in its project.
KitoZyme, the University of Liège spin-off which specializes in producing vegetal biopolymers, recently won the Prize for Innovation in Wallonia.
The arrival of a new shareholder with new financial resources will give KitoZyme help at a good time. Following a successful pilot phase, the start-up is now launching industrial-scale production of its vegetal biopolymers and worldwide marketing through a network of distributors.
Its unit producing biopolymers for the wine industry also bids fair to be a success. Trials carried out on 2005 vintages have yielded promising results and provided KitoZyme obtains the necessary approvals from the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) it will be full steam ahead for the 2006 harvest.
KitoZyme manufactures biopolymers, which are naturally occurring macromolecules (long-chain molecules). Starch, cellulose, proteins, peptides and DNA are all examples of biopolymers, in which the basic units are sugars, amino acids and nucleic acids. KitoZyme extracts and purifies polysaccharides – chains or clusters of sugars – made up of D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units. The resulting products are in either powder or liquid form depending on the application.
KitoZyme biopolymers are of vegetal origin. They are derived from fungi which are themselves products and by-products (i.e. substances not used in the main product) of the food industry. The by-products used by KitoZyme are Aspergillus niger, used in citric acid production and to be found in many of the foods we eat, and the stems of the Aspergillus bisporus, better known as the button mushroom.
KitoZyme's biopolymers enjoy a worldwide reputation. One such biopolymer is chitosan (pronounced 'ky-toe-san').
but this process results in inconsistent quality, generates a lot of pollution and offers no tractability. In addition, biopolymers produced from crustaceans are known to cause allergies (3% of the population suffer from allergies to crustaceans) and their animal source means that they are becoming increasingly controversial.
All of KitoZyme's biopolymers are designed for high-value-added applications. Their individual qualities make them ideal for use in specific sectors and include:
· slimming and anti-cholesterol properties (nutraceuticals);
· antimicrobial, moisturising and wound-healing functions (cosmetics);
· clarifying, stabilising and detoxifying properties (heavy metals, mycotoxins), for applications in the beverage industry;
· wound-healing, bioadhesive, and antimicrobial functions, ideal for medical devices, encapsulation and drug administration systems.
KitoZyme's customers are companies that design and/or market nutraceutical and cosmetic products, from large international groups to research laboratories.
Other customers include medical and pharmaceutical laboratories, which use biopolymers in the development of pioneering products, and wine producers, who use them to clarify wine.
For further information, check the website.
http://www.kitozyme.com