HPMC stands for hydroxypropyl methylcellulose or hypromellose for short. HPMC is the material from which most supplement capsules are made. It is a clear, tasteless, vegetarian and vegan appropriate material. It is normally made by extraction from wood pulp.
Of course, there are plenty of other materials that supplement capsules can be made from. HPMC is by far the most common, but bovine gelatine capsules are still used occasionally, or there are more unusual options, such as pullulan, which is made from a tapioca extract.
Once upon a time, almost all vitamin capsules were made from bovine gelatin. As vegetarianism and sustainability became more popular, market trends moved away from gelatin based capsules. Today most supplement products in the UK and European market would be made from HPMC. Bovine gelatin tends to only be used in very lost cost products, or products where it would not matter that it is not vegetarian, such as a collagen capsule.
G&G favors the use of HPMC capsules as they allow us to manufacture supplements without additives like magnesium stearate. Manufacturing tablets requires glue, binders, fillers, and coating. With an HPMC capsule you can fill it with just the active ingredient, and thus minimize the number of additional ingredients required.
HPMC is vegan and vegetarian friendly. Nobody really wants to swallow a capsule made from boiled cow bones if they have a choice, so gelatin capsules have become unpopular with educated consumers. HPMC has no natural taste, smell or colour, although many capsules will have colours added. Most people find HPMC easy to swallow. It also dissolves in the stomach quite quickly, often in just 5-10 minutes. Bovine gelatin capsules take longer to dissolve at more like 20 minutes. Tablets can take hours to dissolve completely. This makes HPMC capsules an ideal delivery method for most supplements, where we want the powdered vitamin or mineral content to arrive quickly and comfortably into the users stomach.
European law allows for the use of HPMC capsules in the manufacture of organic product, where exceptions are not made for other shell materials. HPMC is not as cheap to buy as gelatin capsules, but is relatively inexpensive.
The HPMC capsule itself is made from a wood source, so is often described as natural. Of course the contents of the capsules you buy may or may not be from a natural source, but the shell itself will be.
Where the HPMC capsule has been coated with a colour, the coating may well be synthetic. Titanium dioxide is commonly used to colour capsules, and this synthetic colourant has some associated health risks and warnings. It is possible to naturally colour capsules, but only in certain colours. Shades of green can be achieved with a coating of chlorophyll, and a purple capsule shell is available using a purple carrot extract.
To order your HPMC capsules contact G&G today.
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