Welcome to the Global Health and Nutrition Network, Innovation Spotlight Series, part
of the Supply Side Global Experience Program.
In this episode, we travel to Bangalore, India, visiting farms, labs, and factories to document
how Subince Corporation and SemiLabs are applying a farm-to-finished ingredient process to bring
innovative ingredients to market.
Join us as we travel about five hours south of Bangalore to explore the fields of Salem
in experience of a gathering of more than 200 farmers fighting against synthetic curcumin.
We will also sit down with one of our industry's pioneers and see firsthand the R&D and manufacturing
process in action through some of SemiLabs and Subince's facilities.
First, I wanted to start at the beginning with Dr. Mohammed Majeed on the importance
of working with the farmers who are responsible for growing the crops that enable Subince
to bring the highest quality natural ingredients to the market.
The most important thing is about sustainability.
See, unless the farmers are prompted, promoted, and supported, you will not have continuous
supply of any of these medicinal plants.
See, Mother Earth has given us some, but when there is global demand, like we are experiencing
now, the farmers need to be taken as partners and to be encouraged that they continue to
cultivate.
Because it's one thing to say, farmers are important.
So you promise them what they're going to get?
Absolutely.
They're never going to get less than that?
Absolutely.
But if the market goes up, they share in that?
They have a share.
Very compelling for us to learn directly from Dr. Majeed how Subince and SemiLabs had built
these guarantees in for the farmers.
This is something new to us, and seems to be a big differentiator for the farmer and
Dr. Majeed's business.
As we learned about this and more in our discussion, we wanted to get on the road and see some
of these farms for ourselves.
So we got in the car and made a five-hour journey to the south, and what we saw left
us humbled and inspired.
So we're halfway to Salem, we left Bangalore a couple of hours ago, and we're on our way
to go see the grower operation where the curcumin comes from, the turmeric fields.
We're going to meet the farmers, talk to them a little bit about what they're going through
as they grow this turmeric here in India, what it means to their community, and then
ultimately what it means to our community as this curcumin comes to market.
As we arrived in Salem, we were surprised to find the so-called small gathering of farmers,
and was actually a farmers association meeting to discuss the very real issue of synthetic
curcumin impacting the turmeric farmers in the area.
Well, we made it here to Salem just in time for the conference against synthetic curcumin,
gathering of a couple of hundred farmers and people involved in the trade and some dignitaries
to talk specifically about what synthetic curcumin is doing to their farms, their community,
the market, the prices, all of that, a lot of passion.
As we saw the state president of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association lead this session,
it was incredible to see the commitment and selflessness of this community of farmers
coming together to support each other.
Many of these farmers have turmeric crops, but there were many others who are not directly
impacted by the synthetic curcumin issue, but are here to support their fellow farmers
and work for a resolution.
As other farmers and supporters joined the stage and shared their individual stories
about the impact of synthetic curcumin, we learned details about how their farms are
cultivated and nurtured to produce the best possible crops, and heard extremely impassioned
farmers share the dreadful impact adulteration with synthetic curcumin has had on their farming
businesses and on their families, some of which actually broke into song to tell their story.
They spoke to the hearts and minds of their fellow farmers, and came together with common
purpose and unity.
As the session came to a close, Sabinsa representatives Vijay Nair, CEO, and Shaheen Majeed, marketing
director, addressed the farmers with the same commitment we heard from Dr. Majeed, a focus
on supporting and investing in the success of the farmers and their crops, which of course
enable more success for Sabinsa and the industry as a whole.
As a follow-on to this short documentary, we will be sharing a deeper look into this
synthetic curcumin issue, but for now, our journey will continue as we move on to some
of the fields these farmers are responsible for.
As you can see, the lush landscape throughout this area is truly beautiful and offers the
fertile ground to cultivate the crops that enable Sabinsa to bring quality ingredients
to market.
So I'm here on one of the many farms in the Salem area where they're growing the turmeric
to make the curcumin.
You can see the folks working out in the field, the signs here that say Sabinsa with Dr.
Majeed's picture on them.
Every farm in this area growing turmeric for the Sabinsa curcumin has this sign to indicate
that's what it is.
It doesn't look like an extremely large farm here, but there are many of these, thousands
of acres all over this area and others that are giving these communities great jobs, great
revenue and giving the global market some great products.
As we continued our tour to another turmeric field, I got a chance to speak in depth with
Shaheen Majeed and relate the curcumin fields back to some of the elements from the Farmers
Association meeting along with what this means to our market as a whole.
One of the things is we come out here with a team of scientists to look at the land and
look at the viability of the land that's here.
Now not all lands are perfect, but we help them get to that point where they can start
to cultivate and harvest and ultimately make some money for them and their family because
we should never let go of the aspects of a farmer.
We need that in our community.
Though we could have spent the entire day on the turmeric fields, we wanted to get an
understanding of the other crops that are driving the success of Sabinsa's ingredient
business.
I was joined by Vijay Nair and a few others at the Coleus Forskoli fields next to learn
more about how Sabinsa's Forskolin comes to us via these crops.
So this is Coleus Forskoli, which is the source of Forskolin from the root that you
sell at Sabinsa as your forest lean brand.
So this however is no root obviously.
This is the clipping from next to us what is the nursery and this is again not where
the root comes from.
These plants are just for these clippings, which once they turn this more purple color,
you can take them to the other farms all around the area and plant them and in six months
they'll be ready to harvest for the root so you can extract the Forskolin and bring
Forskolin to market.
Excellent.
I was curious to get a bit deeper on this, so I asked Shaheen to spend a few more minutes
with me discussing how this ingredient is impacting the market.
So Shaheen Coleus Forskoli, the source of Forskolin, which is your branded ingredient, Forskolin.
The primary benefit, the primary reason that people use it is for lean body mass, which
I think is interesting because in the industry weight loss has been a huge area for a long
time, but most weight loss that we've seen for years is with all these heavy stimulants
out there.
That's right.
Forskolin doesn't work that way.
Well when we discovered the true benefit of Forskolin, Coleus Forskoli, we realized
it's almost an effedron-free type of stimulant, right?
Right.
There is no stimulant.
There is no effedron, but you can still get a kick and get the lean body mass that you
need.
Right.
Right, but amplified.
Yeah.
Totally different kind of weight management.
Right.
All from right here in the field.
That's right.
Natural, grown right here in Salem, here in India.
Here in India.
Employing lots of people to bring what the U.S. market wants, which is a way to get lean
body mass.
Well, that's what we wanted also.
We just didn't want to be a trader or a supplier of an ingredient, right?
That's not what Sabinsa.
Sabinsa is really known for being hands-on and not just in research hands-on, but right
here in the fields that you're with me today.
Yeah.
It all starts here.
You can see the farms and the farmers.
And it ends up after going through the whole R&D process and getting to the market.
This is the start of the innovation.
You guys add what you add to all of it.
Correct.
And at the end of the day, we end up with a great product on the market that not only
is a market success, but it's helping people be healthier in a healthy way as they search
for these weight management solutions.
If you want true transparency, think about the farmers and the farms that you've been
on today all the way to a finished formula that contains forest lean.
Yeah.
You've seen the whole spectrum now, John.
So as we consider this spectrum that Shaheen mentions, it made me want to learn more about
the R&D stages and the manufacturing process Sabinsa goes through.
I got a chance to ask Dr. Majeed a few questions on this topic and also had a chance to tour
some of these working areas in both the R&D labs and in the manufacturing facilities.
What you saw here today is my basic conviction that R&D is the basis of any successful business.
Without research and development, no company is going to survive on a long-term basis.
You can survive for a few years, but long-term if you look at it, it is R&D, research and
development and continuous investment into research and development, which is what I
have practiced.
And I can see that I have made very successful products based on my research and I continue
to see in the foreseeable future that we will bring in very innovative products into the
market from R&D.
And what you saw today, John, what my people are working on today, may be a product we
will introduce seven, eight, ten years down the line.
What they developed the last five years is now going through clinical and getting ready
to get into the market.
So it's a continuous process, it is six to eight percent of our gross income goes into
this one and, you know, there is no substitute for R&D.
Throughout the tour of Subinces R&D facility, I got the chance to speak with a number of
PhD scientists who are responsible for applying their intelligence to the innovation coming
out of the labs.
This is no small feat as hundreds of doctors collaborate together via state-of-the-art technology
to test and define and redefine the finished ingredients that impact the health and wellness
of the world.
I wanted to get Dr. Majeed's thinking about investments here as well, especially looking
at the equipment that you have and that you've invested in, some of which I frankly haven't
seen in a lot of other places and that's a major investment I saw, one in particular
the nuclear magnetic resonance machine, the NMR, which very powerful tool to have and
again one that is not very common in the industry and a big investment.
It's a big investment and also you have noticed that another one that is a coupled version
of LC-MS, MS and GC-MS together.
What that machine does is pick up any kind of residual pesticide or insecticide in the
extract over the raw material that's coming in.
That has become very important now.
With the raw material that goes into production, we need to know if there's any pesticide
used or insecticide used, if they used it, is it within the limits.
So that is another equipment we added lately in the last couple of years.
NMR is an absolute must because always dealing with the plant materials, we need to know
what kind of chemicals we are looking at and the capability is there with major pharma
companies but none in the nutra business.
As we look at how these investments are being put to work for SemiLabs in Savinsa, we made
a trip to Nellamangala to get an overview of the fermentation process for growing the
lactospor probiotic ingredients and also to spend some time in the biotechnology center
learning about supercritical carbon dioxide extraction.
As we continue our journey here in India, today we're at the SemiLabs Biotechnology
Center where we have two facilities, two operations right here on these beautiful grounds.
First we're going to learn about the fermentation process that produces the lactospor probiotic
that Savinsa has brought to market and second right here on the grounds, we're going to
tour their supercritical CO2 extraction facility where they're doing cutting-edge extracts
of botanicals.
So let's go in and see what we can learn.
The lactospor, the actual, the trained specialist, this is a new school probiotic bacteria which
produces the desired form of the lactic acid, which is one of the advantages compared to
many other probiotics.
But for example, this produces predominantly the L form of lactic acid, which is the desired
form that can be taken into the body.
Explain me how this all works.
Yeah, yeah, fine, fine.
So the culture what we maintain and we propagate it to the various stages, initially it goes
to the inoculum preparation in the stage one, then it goes to stage two where we actually
have a higher volume.
It goes for pulling of the inoculum to the fermentation, where we have an entire fermentation
for about 36 hours.
The culture grows and it comes forward, then we do the harvesting into a flurry that slightly
actually goes into the straight-line process.
Once we have the straight-line process, we have a concentrated powder which goes for
quality control tests.
Once it is approved, then we take it for formulation, we dilute the desired strength
of 100 million, or 6 million, or 15 million, spores for grand, and it goes for blending,
sifting, packing, goes to the current time.
Again, it's tested as for the specifications, then we clear it for the main finished goods,
then it goes for exports.
It goes to the customer to come to the market.
Yes.
Adjacent to the fermentation facility is the supercritical fluid extract facility, where
we will be learning about the cutting-edge extraction work being done here.
I'll just brief about this SAFE plant operations.
SAFE stands for Supercritical Fluid Extraction, as you know.
Basically, we use liquid carbon dioxide as a solvent.
SCFE, Supercritical Fluid Extraction, is the production of standardized extracts from medicinal
herbs by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, a very clean and green process where the carbon
dioxide gas that is used is recycled for reuse and contained in a closed-loop system.
This is a huge investment from SAFE labs in Sabinsa to build this level of technology
and automation, and interesting to see the investments Dr. Majeed speaks of coming to
life through this innovative facility.
We join the team in the SCFE control room to learn more.
Basically, this is mission control, and you're in charge of, yeah.
It requires very minimal manpower for operations, single-operated, you know, the entire plant.
And all we need is for the loading and unloading of the material, as where we actually need
the physical help person to come in and load it.
But other than that, completely automated, completely enclosed, and all run from right
here.
As we continued our tour of this fascinating facility, we were able to see the results
of this extraction process.
So what I've got here is a highly concentrated extract for Tulsi, the holy basil plant that
we were able to interact with directly on the farm in Sabinsa.
And this is from that plant that's gone through this super critical CO2 process, highly highly
concentrated, to eventually become a product for a consumer to use.
And I can tell you, it is highly concentrated.
It smells just like the plant in the field, maybe a little stronger.
As we come to the final stop on our journey, we head to the Sammy and Sabinsa Doba spet
curcumin and coleus manufacturing facility.
With the incredible success and scale Sabinsa has seen with curcumin, we're enthused to
see the extraction process that yields curcumin from the turmeric root.
We were joined by Mr. K. Parameswaran, unit head of Sammy Labs Doba spet facility, who
has been with the company 15 years and leads the process there.
As the number one ingredient at Sabinsa and Sammy Labs, they have pioneered a large scale
continuous extraction process to meet the high demand for curcumin and coleus.
The process begins with the arrival of bulk agricultural material from the farms, which
is analyzed for identity and quality.
Once approved, these materials are prepared for extraction.
In the case of turmeric, the turmeric root fingers are first powdered and then pelletized
as this is ideal for the continuous extraction process.
The turmeric pellets are taken by conveyor to the extractor, where they travel slowly
through nine solvent sprayers, taking eight hours to complete the extraction process.
Once the extraction is complete, the solvent is removed using four dryers for evaporation.
The closed system recycles the solvent.
This extract then goes into tray dryers at 95 to 100 degrees Celsius to remove any remaining
moisture.
The dried curcumin is now ready for further processing to meet exact customer specs.
Many customers opt for the granulated product as it is easier to use than curcumin powder
which is notorious for challenging cleanup work.
From here, the material is tested for quality and purity, then packaged up for delivery
to the customer and use in consumer products containing curcumin C3 complex.
Many companies in our industry talk about the farm to finished ingredient or finished
product process, but how many can literally outline what that process looks like?
We got to experience this live here in India and it was an eye-opening experience.
The farms, research, science, technology, equipment, and most of all the people seem
to make up the secret sauce of what Dr. Majeed and his team have pioneered.
Dr. Majeed, any last words before we close down this great journey?
I can only tell people, science is dynamic, it's continuous.
You're never done.
Yeah, you are never done.
But never that, did you.
