Sami Labs has introduced the total vegetarian lycopene wellness pill on March 1, 2013 beginning with Gujarat. The product contains no animal content.

The pill’s outer covering known as soft gelatin which is typically made of various animal by-products now contains only extracts from vegetables, said Dr Muhammed Majeed, managing director, Sami Labs.

The company claims that the pill is the first in the world to provide the consumers with the new-found synergy between lycopene and beta-carotene, in place of the traditional use of just the first element found in fruits.

Blending beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A), which is a red-orange pigment found in plants and vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin, catalyses the body by absorbing more lycopene. In fact, lycopene is extracted from a Southeast Asian fruit, generally called Gac and the content is 70 times more than what is found in tomato, said Dr Majeed.

Globally, tomatoes are known for its lycopene content but after 2004, when certain parts of Indo-China region opened up, Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis) was made available to the world. Lycopene has the  potential to pre-empt cancer and prevent cardiovascular disease besides treat osteoporosis, improve male infertility, protect cellular damage and delay ageing of the skin because of its antioxidant property, he added.

Quoting studies, Dr Majeed said that at  an eight-week human intervention trial with healthy subjects demonstrated that supplementation of 12 mg lycopene a day or a mixture of lycopene with carotene and lutein (4 mg/ day each) can significantly decrease oxidative DNA damage of human lymphocytes. The beta-carotene clinical trials have found that its supplementation improves several biomarkers of immune function. Further, studies show that long-term beta-carotene supplementation enhances natural killer cell activity in elderly men.

V G Nair, chief executive officer, Sami Labs said that the stability of the innovative lycopene has proven its success in tropical Indian conditions noted for heat and humidity.

According to Rajesh Kumar, CEO, Sami Direct, Ahmedabad is the ideal city to launch Lycopene going by the presence of communities like Jains and Bishnois, who particularly refrain from soft gel capsules because of the animal by-product content.