Capsule is a common carrier for filling medicine or health food. With the prosperity and trend of global health industry, capsules will be more and more frequently involved with our stomach and intestines, and more and more closely related to our health. Our common capsules belong to animal capsules, which occupy the majority of capsule market share. In addition, there are relatively new plant capsules, which have a relatively small market share, but the share of plant capsules in the global market is growing fast. This paper will analyze the development trend of plant-derived capsules.
Plant capsule raw material advantage
Animal capsules are the common form of capsules at present. The raw material is collagen in the bone and skin of pigs, cows, sheep and other animals, while the plant capsules are made of potato or corn starch, plant fiber or seaweed extract.
Capsules made from plants often have the concept of "natural" in the marketing publicity, and will not be boycotted by strict vegetarians or some religious believers, which also makes it easier for plant-derived capsules to pass the certification standards of halal, kosher, vegetarian, non-GMO and even organic by various governments, making it easier for healthy products to develop in this diversified world market.
The physical advantages of plant capsules
Ordinary capsule on the storage environment of temperature, humidity and packaging material requirements are harsh, easy to adhere in high humidity conditions, low humidity conditions are easy to lose water hardening brittle. In contrast, plant capsules are physically stable and can significantly reduce storage losses. When used as a carrier for chewable dietary supplements, the taste and texture of the capsules are also important. Ordinary capsules are colorless and odorless, and may require the addition of sugar or sweeteners to improve the taste, while the plant-based capsules themselves have a slightly sweet taste and good taste.
Chemical advantages of plant capsules
The main ingredient in ordinary capsules is collagen, which is more likely to dissolve and release its contents in the stomach. Some drugs that require quick action or nutrients that are suitable for digestion in the stomach seem better suited to such capsules, such as stomach drugs, lactoferrin and immunoglobulin. Collagen capsules are relatively easy to cross-link with amino acids and aldehyde drugs, which will affect the effect of digestion and absorption and shorten the shelf life.
Plant-based capsules are mainly made of long-chain carbohydrates, which take longer to digest and usually dissolve in the gut. Some contents are better suited for direct absorption in the gut, such as probiotics, fat-soluble vitamins or fish oil. And relatively speaking, the chemical inertness of plant capsules is larger, which can extend the shelf life of products.
Plant capsule production advantage
The main component of ordinary capsules is protein, which is easy to breed breeding bacteria and microorganisms, so sterilization is needed in the production process, which will produce more waste water and pollution, but the production process is more mature and the cost is lower.
Compared with ordinary capsules, plant capsules have significant advantages in the production process of green, safe, wide applicability, no cross-linking reaction risk, high stability, but its high cost, dissolution performance has not improved, become the main factor limiting the promotion of plant capsules in the field of medical products, short-term incremental mainly concentrated in the cost is not too sensitive, expensive innovative drugs or health food.
New market opportunities for plant soft capsules
According to the data of Global Info Research, the global plant capsule market scale is about 1.184 billion US dollars in 2020, and is expected to reach 1.585 billion US dollars in 2026. The annual growth rate from 2021 to 2026 is expected to reach 7.6%, indicating a fast growth of the industry scale. The global plant capsule market accounts for 15%-20% of the total capsule market, which has formed a partial replacement for ordinary capsules, and the future replacement space is still broad.
Plant capsules can not only enhance the brand value of products in the market, more importantly, it can accelerate the pace of internationalization of products, so that drugs and health food quickly into the international multicultural and natural market trends.
At present, the consumption market of plant capsules is mainly the health products market in Europe and America rather than China. More than 95% of the capsules consumed in China belong to animal capsules. But with the penetration of the concept of "pure natural" in the Chinese market and the improvement of capsule quality requirements, and with the passage of time, the breakthrough of technology, equipment and raw materials, the development potential of the Chinese plant capsule consumption market is huge. Also believe that there will be more and more pharmaceutical and health food manufacturing and sales enterprises grasp the capsule replacement opportunity, under their promotion of the majority of Chinese people's consumption concept change, push back the plant capsule industry development, the formation of a virtuous cycle of market development.
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