By Josephine Zhao，International market Director，Tianjin Jianfeng Natural Product R&D Co., Ltd.

Grape seeds were found to contain polyphenols with a wide range of 
molecular weights. itis a poly -phenolic compound that is unusually high in plant flavonoids called oligomeric procyanidins, better known as OPCs. Although these polyphenolic compounds are found in many foods we eat such as peanuts, berries, grapes and purple grape juice, there just isn't the concentration necessary of these powerful antioxidants to make a difference to our health - until now, we found the grape seed extract polyphenols.
It has long been known that the French tend to live anunusally healthy and long life - even though their diet is rich in saturated fats and alcahol, namely red wine. Only recently has it become known to researchers and scientists alike that the active poly - phenolic compounds within red wine are the key to unravelling this long kept mystery.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH):1
"Today, grape seed extract is used as a folk or traditional remedy for conditions related to the heart and blood vessels, such as atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and poor circulation …
…  [C]omplications related to diabetes, such as nerve and eye damage; vision problems, such as macular degeneration (which can cause blindness); swelling after an injury or surgery; cancer prevention; and wound healing.
The grape seeds used to produce grape seed extract are generally obtained from wine manufacturers."
Further, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center:4
"Studies have found that grape seed extracts may prevent the growth of breast, stomach, colon, prostate, and lung cancer cells in test tubes. However, there is no clear evidence whether it works in humans.
Antioxidants, such as those found in grape seed extract, may help reduce the risk of developing cancer. Grape seed extract may also help prevent damage to human liver cells caused by chemotherapy medications."

Global Grape Seed Extract Market Key Players:

The international market whose major demand nations include European countries and the U.S. maintained stability in recent years. The demand for grape seed extracts in Chinese market continues to increase with the annual growth rate of 30%. The current major suppliers of grape seed extracts is include polyphenolics, Indena, Nutriscience Innovations, Tianjin Jianfeng Natural Product R&D Co., Ltd.,(JF NATURAL)，BannerBio, Zhejiang Skyherb Biotechnology Inc., Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients Corp., Hebei Chenguang Biotech Group Co., Ltd., etc, different companies are selecting different seeds to be the raw material, the non-fermented white grape seeds and fermented red grape seeds, the quality of non-fermented white grape seeds is higher because of the higher content of oligomers with higher ORAC value , JF NATURAL is now selecting non-fermented white grape seeds from France

Quality Journal and regulations
Adulteration found in US and EU:
With more and more strong study from US, EU, more and more adulterated material was found and now they are trying to carry out different technics to distinguish the differences such as following HPLC-chromatograph:


Peanut skin extract HPLC chromatograph

At the same time, customer in EU,USA are pursuing high value of ORAC as well as good water-solubility to use worldwide, the ORAC value for the grape seed extrat, according to the different technics could be from 8000μmole TE/g to 16000μmole TE/g. the higher the ORAC, the better anti-oxidant effect we could get.

China market regulations
Under CFDA’s leading, the market is becoming more and more in order, and the regulations are becoming more and more mature, thetraceability of the product’s quality was regarded very important now, and the following parameters has been taken into control the grape seed extract’s quality such as active ingredients, heavy metals, pesticides etc.
So now large health care products companies are choose a reliable, high reputation suppliers which has complete quality control systems such as CGMP, ISO,HACCP etc.

New regulations on nutritional supplements in China have been released, which impose strict control over all aspects of nutritional supplements.
On Nov. 5, 2014, CFDA released the draft of Administrative Provisions on Nutritional Supplements and Requirements on Dossiers for Nutritional Supplements, which gives detailed instructions on regulatory requirements for nutritional supplements in China. The period for public consultation is until Nov. 30, 2014 which including manufacturing, testing, product requirements, naming, labeling, product description as well as the packaging, we believe that with China governments strong control, China’s health foods market will have a bright future and only high quality materials could be survived.

Global Grape Seed Extract Market Segmentation:
On the basis of application grape seed extracts market is segmented into food industry, pharmaceutical industry, personal care industry and others. It is majorly used in food industry as a dietary supplement. By the form of grape seed extracts market is segmented into powder, liquid and gel. Powder and liquid is widely used in food industry as dietary supplement. Grape seed extracts in the form of gel are mainly used in cosmetics.

Geographically, grape seed extracts market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Where in terms of revenue contribution, North America holds the largest share for grape seed extracts followed by Western Europe.

China, as a rising power of health care products, grape seed extract has a greater use of space in China, but it could be only used into the Health foods industry in China with the regulation limit, and the product could be sold only when you have province level and up registrations of the raw material.

Global Grape Seed Extract Market dynamics:
Global grape seed extracts market is mainly driven by health consciousness among consumers. Also, procurement of good quality grape seeds for the manufacturing process is a challenge for the manufactures in North America and Europe. Moreover, symptoms of allergies such as histamine might restrain the adoption of grape seed extracts in food products, which is expected to restrain the market growth. Owing to antioxidants and anti-ageing properties coupled with increasing demand for personal care and skin care market, the demand for grape seed extracts is expected to increase in the near future. Also, its uses in medicines and dietary supplements is surging popularity of grape seed extracts worldwide. Asia pacific excluding Japan and China are anticipated to witness grape seed extracts product launches by the companies.