Bionutri uses a number of excipients in our products. Excipients are used when they are essential to the stability, quality and bio-availability (absorption) of the end product.
What is Silicon Dioxide?
Silicon dioxide (or silica) is a purified form of quartz found in many foods, food supplements and pharmaceutical medications. It is also contained within the cell structures of plants and features as a part of many of the foods we eat: Oats, brown rice, alfalfa and leafy green vegetables all contain Silicon dioxide as it supports the movement of water through their fibres. The well-known herb Horsetail (Equisetum) contains as much as 25% Silicon dioxide.
What is it used for?
As an excipient, Silicon dioxide is used as a tablet disintegrant - a material that aids the tablet, capsule or granule to break apart into particles that can be dissolved. A supplement that doesn’t disintegrate efficiently is useless. Silicon dioxide is also used in formulations to promote flow of tableting powders and to prevent their sticking in tablet presses.
Are there side effects associated with silicon dioxide?
The only recorded side effects are associated with people taking antacids containing Silicon dioxide over a long period of time. The side effect was kidney stone. Kidney stones are an associated side effect of all antacids.
Are there alternatives to using Silicon dioxide in Supplements?
Some manufacturers of food supplements use Alfalfa or Rice Hulls as an alternative to Silicon Dioxide. They are used particularly because of their high Silicon Dioxide content. The downside of using these alternatives is that they require a much larger amount to function adequately as a Disintegrant. By using a small amount of pure Silicon Dioxide in a formulation there is physically more room for active ingredients.
As consumers, we expect a lot from a supplement like B vitamins and Vitamin D. Excipients help to ensure that doses of a nutrient that are so small they cannot be seen with the human eye can be accurate within each individual tablet or capsule. We expect these highly-active nutrients to be stable within the tablet or capsule, not reacting with other ingredients or moisture. We expect the supplement to be easy to take, not getting stuck in our throat and we expect it should break apart adequately in the stomach and suitably absorbed through the gut. Excipients are the vehicles that help to ensure the integrity of a beneficial supplement.
Edward Joy