So I’ve been curious as to how medicines have been made, from how extracts of plants/vitamins are made, to the precise components that are fused together to make the supplements that we see in vitamin stores today.
In: Chemistry
Specific plants are high in certain vitamins. Given that we’ve had a lot of time to figure out how to extract those specific vitamins from the plants, it allows us to be able to get almost pure versions of those vitamins. For example, rose hips are very high in vitamin C. They grind up and extract the vitamin C from the powdered rose hips. They then combine the vitamin C with a binding agent that when it is squished into a form under high pressure, it sticks together in a tablet form. For pills you swallow whole, they are coated with something to prevent moisture in the air breaking them apart and to help you swallow them. The binding agent is different based on the application. Chewable tablets use a binding agent that is easier to break apart, typically.
I work with some biochemical extracts, and the way they get it out of the source plant is usually by adding a specific solvent, like alcohol, or water, or whatever works, at certain temperature and pH, the purify the extract.
A lot of the answers so far seem from a supplier aspect of supplement manufacturing. I work as a scientist in product development for a contract manufacturer and we make a ton of brands sold in stores like Whole Foods, GNC, and Vitamin Shoppe as well as products offered on TV and exclusively through doctors. So I’ll try and give you a perspective from product development.
A sales rep gets in contact with our department about a company’s product. We quote them at cost for materials and labor/manufacturing. If it’s an existing product, we are sent samples and we make a base and flavor profile to match their product (typically this is for cost) but 9/10 times it’s a company saying “we want something just like this product but vegan/organic/etc.”
In my department, we focus on powders (protein shakes, BCAA’s, preworkouts, Keto coffees etc) but I noticed you were interested in encapsulation. We will test the product with a pilot batch to see if we make fill weight. All these pills need some filler to help ensure the pill doesn’t crush or not close properly during production. Sticky materials usually require silica and magnesium stearate.
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