How to choose a quality liposomal vitamin C?
It's cold and flu season, and vitamin C is an essential foundation for supporting immunity and easing the course of any illness. Many animals and plants can produce this vitamin in their bodies and do not need supplements. However, the human body cannot produce it naturally and must consume it through food, especially from fruits and vegetables as part of a varied and balanced diet. Its richest natural sources include rose hips, acerola, sea buckthorn and black currants. In addition, vitamin C is naturally accompanied by other bioactive substances beneficial to the body, such as flavonoids. However, if you have a diet low in natural vitamin C, it is advisable to supplement it with food supplements.
Is the liposomal form of vitamin C more effective?
We know it is!
"A very effective way to get a number of bioactive substances to their destination in the organism is to process them into liposomal form," said Doc. Ing. Petr Kaštánek, PhD ., scientist and director of research laboratories EcoFuel Laboratories and BIOCEN Laboratories, and founder of the purely Czech brand NEOBOTANICS TM .
What are liposomes?
Liposomes (or liposomes) are transport vesicles consisting of one or more concentric phospholipid bilayers surrounding a core formed by water or an aqueous solution of hydrophilic substances (in this case, vitamin C). Liposomes reduce the degradation of vitamin C in the gastrointestinal tract, delay its release, and increase absorption.
The quality of liposomes depends significantly on the manufacturing process , in practice expensive and equipment-intensive techniques such as high-pressure homogenization, ultrasonic sonication, extrusion through membranes or hydration of a thin lipid layer are used, which allows the formation of stable liposomal structures. The manufacturer of the preparation must also have at its disposal advanced instrumental imaging and analytical techniques, allowing the quantification of the characteristics of the encapsulated particles. However, this information is not commonly communicated to the consumer, nor is it measured in most commercially available products.
There are currently 2 types of liposomal products on the market:
- Liquid liposomal products - user-friendly, but are characterized by a number of technological problems - to ensure microbial protection of the preparation, it is necessary to add alcohol or preservatives, which makes the product unsuitable for children or people sensitive to alcohol. The products also typically have a limited shelf life and after opening the product, it is usually necessary to store it in the refrigerator. The unpleasant taste is often suppressed by the high sugar content, which makes the preparation unsuitable for children and diabetics, or does not correspond to the principles of healthy nutrition. Liposomes in liquid form can change size and structure over time, which can also lead to a change in the stability and biological activity of the preparation. In some brands of products, liposomes are not present at all, or there are only a minimal amount of them, and most of the vitamin C can be present in the solution around the liposomes!
- Powdered liposomal products (in capsules) – some cheaper brands simply dry mix powdered lecithin (containing phospholipids that form the walls of liposomal particles) with powdered vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and label the resulting mixture as liposomal, while there are no liposomes in the material, nor are they spontaneously formed in significant quantities in the digestive tract after ingestion of such a mixture. Such preparations may be significantly cheaper, but their effect on the body is no different from normal vitamin C. Some manufacturers also present organic salts of ascorbic acid, such as ascorbyl palmitate, as liposomal forms.
Only a specialist can tell if a product is actually forming liposomes in the digestive tract using advanced equipment such as a scanning electron microscope. Be wary of suspiciously cheap products. Liposomal technology, as mentioned above, is expensive, and this is reflected in the higher price of the products.
How to choose a quality vitamin C supplement?
- He buys from proven, traditional brands, backed by real experts from academia.
- Look for lecithin or phospholipids in the composition of the products, which are present in lecithin. These create the structure of the liposome, without them it is not a liposomal (or pro-liposomal) preparation.
Liposomal vitamins brand Neobotanics
Made using NEOLIPO™ technology, developed as part of original Czech research. The result of this unique technology is a state where vitamin C and other active ingredients (e.g. zinc, selenium or bioflavonoids) are encapsulated in the core of a liposome, surrounded by a phospholipid bilayer protective membrane, inside which oil-soluble nutrients such as vitamin D can be embedded. These liposomal forms allow for significantly better utilization of vitamins by the body. As part of our research, we found that the effectiveness of vitamin C is even more enhanced by combinations with natural substances. In addition to vitamin C, selenium and zinc, strong antioxidant effects were shown by e.g. elderberry, sea buckthorn and rose hips, i.e. herbs traditionally used during the flu season, but surprisingly also by extracts from hop cones or sage tops.
NEOBOTANICS®
The purely Czech brand NEOBOTANICS®, focused on the research, development and production of dermatocosmetics and dietary supplements, was created on the basis of scientific research into natural bioactive substances, under the leadership of Doc. Ing. Petr Kaštánek, PhD., in cooperation with major Czech scientific institutions (University of Chemical Technology in Prague, BIORAF competence center). NEOBOTANICS® products are tested for quality and purity of raw materials, content of active ingredients and combine the best of science and nature.
LIPOSOMAL VITAMIN C PLUS + Zn + Se + Bioflavonoids 
