The Origin and Function of Bilberry

Vaccinium is one of the Ericaceae families. It is evergreen or is one of the deciduous shrubs. The flowers are long bell- or urn-shaped, ovary inferior. The berries are usually black or brown, and could be easily found in the slightly acidic soil. It is mainly distributed in Europe, Russia, Asia, North America (U.S. and Canada) and the wild bush area of the Alps at an altitude of 1500 ~ 2000m. It is found that there are a number of subspecies of blueberry all over the world, including Bilberry in Europe, Bilberry in America, Bilberry in Siberia America, Oval Bilberry and Blueberry, more than and 400 varieties. Among then, it is the products in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, and Switzerland that enjoy the best quality.
The main raw material of our company is the wild bilberry from Europe, whose anthocyanin content can reach or exceed 0.36%, with more than 15 kinds of anthocyanins. Meanwhile, the common blueberry anthocyanin content is only about 0.10%, with only 1 to 5 kinds of anthocyanins. The higher the anthocyanin content is, the stronger its effect of combating antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Wild bilberry is more prevalent and distributed in the open pine forests or in arid areas of the Scandinavian region, the altitude could be up to 1700 meters. The reserve volume in Finland reach 150 to 200 thousand tons, but the percentage of the commercial development is only takes up about 4% of the total volume. Our annual import volume of the wild bilberry is about 3000 tons, (mainly from the Scandinavian region, Sweden and Finland in particular), and the production of bilberry extract related products reaches 50 tons.
Bilberry contains much flavonoids, with anthocyanin the main component. Anthocyanin can relieve eye fatigue, improve night vision as well as prevent the occurrence of the cataract.
The popular legend goes like this: During WWII, the British Royal Air Force pilots, after eating bilberry jam for tea, bombed the enemy with devastating accuracy and their night vision was heightened by the powers of the fruit.
A study from the laboratory researches have proven that, the bilberry exact products can inhibit or even reverse the effect of the eye diseases like the similar macular degeneration; in addition, there is an ability to eradicate the anthocyanin capillary of the radicals, strengthen the capillary, improve blood circulation, prevent the formation of thrombus, reduce the frequency of the occurrence of atherosclerosis and anti-cancer etc..
 
Bilberry Extract products export in China

Bilberry Extract products export in China in 2015 （the export volume and the unit price）
According to Herbridge Media，The total sale volume of the Bilberry Extract products in China in 2015 has reached 70,828 USD, down by 16.5% compared with the previous year (the number of 2014 is 84,864 USD); the total export volume is 224.1 tonnes, decreased by 4.8% (the number of 2014 is 235.4 tonnes); the average price for sale is 316 USD, dropped by 12.2% (the number of 2014 is 360 USD).

Bilberry Extract export in China in 2016 （the export volume and the unit price）
In the first half of 2016, the total sale volume of the Bilberry Extract products in China has reached 32,836 USD, down by 10.1% compared with the same period of the previous year (the number of the first half of 2015 is 36,512 USD); the total export volume is 124,348.9 kilos, increased by 13.4% (the number of the first half of 2015 is 109,665.8 kilos); the average price for sale is 264 USD per kilo, dropped by 20.7% (the number of the first half of 2015 is 333 USD).
 
The main market of relevant Bilberry Extract products in the first half of 2015:

Destination	Export Volume (Kg)							%
	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	Jun.	Total
ROK	5075	4000	4185	2097	90.0	5000	20447.0	18.64
Japan	3882.5	1115	4515	8757	4570	9098.2	31937.7	29.12
U.S.	798	3900	4270	6065	5452	5975	26460.0	24.13
Others	2125	1577	4382.5	4774.6	7035.0	10927.0	30821.1	28.10
Total	11880.5	10592.0	17352.5	21693.6	17147.0	31000.2	109665.8	100

 
The main market of relevant Bilberry Extract products in the first half of 2016:
  
 

Destination	Export Volume (Kg)							%
	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	Jun.	Total
ROK	8704.0	8104.0	5696.0	9604.0	5395.0	6130.2	43633.2	35.09
Japan	6355.0	5754.0	3805.0	5592.0	4845.0	3878.0	30229.0	24.31
U.S.	2705.0	4930.0	2100.0	3700.0	8859.0	2875.0	25169.0	20.24
Others	4407.0	2520.0	3259.0	4183.0	8368.7	2580.0	25317.7	20.36
Total	22171.0	21308.0	14860.0	23079.0	27467.7	15463.2	124348.9	100

The general situation of the main export market:
ROK: The export volume in the first half of 2016 is 43633.2 kilos, up by 113.4% compared with the same period of the previous year, and takes up 35.1% of the total export market, increased by 16.5%.
 
Japan: The export volume in the first half of 2016 is 30229 kilos, up by 5.4% compared with the same period of the previous year, and takes up 24.3%of the total export market, decreased by 4.8%.
 
U.S.: The export volume in the first half of 2016 is 25,169kilos, down by 4.9% compared with the same period of the previous year, and takes up 20.2% of the total export market, decreased by 3.9%.
 
The market vision of the relevant Bilberry Extract products.
Application of the Bilberry Extract.
Bilberry Extract is rich in anthcoyanosides. Because of its bright color under certain conditions, it could be used as a food additives. Meanwhile, it also has a strong ability of antioxidation and free radical scavenging, thus it has also been used as the supplementary to the diet complimentary and the raw material of the medical industry.
 
1. Application in Food Addictive
Bilberry Extract is a food additives with good color quality and broad color range, it has different colors in the environment of acid and slight alkaline. And it can be added to different foods. According to the existing data of toxicology of JECFA, it is thought that anthocyanin is slightly toxic, and it has been listed as one of the natural pigments food additives. Anthocyanin extract (including the Bilberry extract) has also been listed as the food additives with no need to certify, and it can be used in beverage, dairy products and cake.
2. Application in the Functional Food
The oxidations sometimes are out of the control and the attack of the radicals are one of the reasons of the aging and pathological changes of human body. There is plenty of phenolic hydroxyl in anthcoyanosides, which will combat effectively the attack of the oxidations and oxidations and relive or prevent the aging and pathological changes physically. Thus, the extract can be used as the functional supplementary of the functional food, and can be used directly as the diet supplementary. Besides, the anthcoyanosides can also improve the scotopic vision, or the vision in the dark of people.
Matsumoto has proved that the anthcoyanosides are able to penetrate the Aqueous Humor barrier of the rat and rabbit’s eyes by either oral administration, intra-peritoneal injection or intravenous injection.
To take the Black currant Extract orally, which is rich in Cy - 3 - G (Cyanidin - 3 - O – glucoside, the main component of anthocyanins in Bilberry Extract) can improve dark indications and instant visual changes which have been long time exposed in the visual display terminal. It is assumed that the anthocyanins can activate the synthetic system on rhodopsin, and improve the visual ability.
Foreign healthcare products manufacturers often mix the anthocyanin and the xanthophylls, claiming that their products enjoy the perfect function of improving the eyesight. For instance, the dietary supplements of the Blue Berry Eyebright formula of the NEW NORDIC Company is composed of the Biliberry Extract, Grape Seed Extract, Calendula Extract and lutein.
With so many active functions, it is justifiable to see that the Bilberry Extract has been widely used in functional food industry.
 
3. Application in the Medical Industry.
At present, lots of experiments have shown that anthocyanins can play the role of anting oxidant on mammalian cells have, inducing the apoptosis and inhibiting the growth of cancer cells as well as inhibiting the inflammatory effect. Although anthocyanins is a high water solubility material, the experiments have confirmed that the anthocyanin prototype has been detected in cells, indicating that it can be absorbed by cells through membrane. This has provided a great convenience for the absorption and metabolism of anthocyanins and its application form in the pharmaceutical industry. The Bilberry Extract with the anthocyanin content higher than 24% has been treated as medicine. And it has been collected by the national pharmacopoeia in countries like Italy, Germany and other countries.
 
The extract purity for a drug shall be high. And it’s difficult to make the anthocyanin content satisfy the international standard through a simple extraction process. This is the bottleneck of developing China's bilberry extract industry. Nowadays, what many domestic manufacturers are producing is a low content bilberry extract product, with a high sugar content, which is easy to absorb moisture and easy to agglomerate. These products have a low added value when exporting, thus the general situation needs to be improved. 
 
Huizhou Shengrong Biotech told herbridge Media，at present, bilberry extract enjoys a large market share in European countries, American and Japan and other developed countries and regions, especially in the dietary supplement industry as an important functional ingredient, it has played a pivotal role.
In recent years, this industry has also enjoyed a rapid development in China, with the manufacturers springing up. Only a few large-scale enterprises have certain competitiveness, the rest are small-scale ones, with weak independent innovation ability and low level of technology and equipment ability. These small enterprises distribute mostly in the northeast area which is rich in resources of wild bilberry and Zhejiang and Shandong, whose planting area is increasing. But the production is mainly seasonal, and the production scale is small, the product level is not high and the added value is low.
At present, the international quality standard of bilberry extract is mainly with reference to the latest version of the USP32 Standard, the specific requirements are: anthocyanins (Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride) content is higher than 36%, the content of this standard can be roughly corresponding to the content of anthocyanin, which is higher than 25%.
It’s difficult to achieve this standard through a simple purification process. Meanwhile, HuiZhou Sheng Rong Biotechnology CO., LTD is one of the few companies who can produce the bilberry extract products with a high content. And the content of anthocyanins in its bilberry extract is higher than 36% (HPLC). Meanwhile, following strictly the GMP regulations, it has established a production workshop with an area of more than 100,000m², and a large modern hygiene workshop with the scale of 100,000, which has been equipped with the ability of plant extraction, extraction, industrial chromatographic separation, vacuum concentration, evaporation and low temperature crystallization, vacuum drying, freeze drying, spray drying, waste recycling process.
 
Our president Mr. Yang Xuefeng has developed the Amideresin (Polyamide) after the researches, it can effectively absorb anthocyanin, which is the main element. After ethanol elution, the anthocyanin content of the bilberry extract product is high, which can reserve a complete fingerprint proportion of dozens of anthocyanins in the raw materials. This extract has no any additives, with a better absorption by the body, besides the unit consumption of bilberry is much less.
 
 
Corporate Profile
HuiZhou Sheng Rong Biotechnology CO., LTD was founded at 2011., backed by our strong R&D ability and strict manufacture and quality management, we commit to providing our customer with natural quality extract products, professional production, convenient and perfect service, with the core concept of “be honest and try our best ”born in mind. Our products are distributed to Japan, America, Europe and other countries. Besides, we also do OEM manufacture of extracts.
It is situated in the H2 Area, Petrochemicals Industrial Zone, Xiachong, Daya Bay, Huizhou, Guangdong, China. The registered capital is about 70 million Yuan, with 109 employees. The company is affiliated to the Bestgrand Chemicals Group Co., LTD, which is a subsidiary of the Bestgrand Holdings Limited. 
The Bestgrand Holdings Limited is established in 1992, and there are three main business blocks: chemicals, real estate and investment. It has more than twenty subsidiaries, covering an area of high-tech investment, chemical products, bi-extract products, construction, real estate development, truck transportation, digital products, ect..
Bestgrand Chemicals Group Co., LTD is established in Oct. 2005, with its main business in chemicals and bi-extracts. It is situated in Petrochemicals Industrial Zone, Xiachong, Daya Bay, Huizhou, Guangdong, China, with the chemical producing factory area reaching 50,000m2. It also involves the business of the storage of the professional chemicals and the logistics distribution business. There are three department: the chemical business department, trade business department and bio-business department.
HuiZhou Sheng Rong Biotechnology CO., LTD enjoys a high-level R&D center, a modern manufacturing basis and a complete quality management system. It has developed a series of high-quality and pure bio-extract products, with Bilberry Extract the main representative.

( Huizhou Shengrong Biotech Co., Ltd.)