PLT Health Solutions, a New Jersey-based botanical ingredients supplier for the nutraceuticals industry, announced the launch of a new botanical sports nutrition ingredient, RipFactor Muscle Accelerator. It is a proprietary blend composed of two standardized botanical extracts, and was made in partnership with Laila Nutraceuticals.
 
The two clinical trials demonstrated the efficacy in the use of the product at two levels, dubbed ‘performance’ and ultra-performance’, both of which show results that are highly significant. In a clinical trial on the ultra-performance formulation, subjects consuming RipFactor exhibited as much as a four-fold increase in muscle size, double the improvement in muscle endurance, and a five times greater improvement in body strength relative to participants taking a placebo. Additionally, researchers observed statistically significant improvements in lead body mass, percent body fat, and total body fat. RipFactor is available in both a standard and neutral tasting water-dispersible form, allowing formulators a broad range of applications including powders, functional foods, shakes, gummies, stick packs, and more.
 
“After a 7-year, multi-million-dollar development process involving in-depth screening of hundreds of botanicals, we are proud to deliver a breakthrough ingredient that can significantly and rapidly increase both upper and lower body strength and endurance, as well as significantly increase muscle size – all in a low-dosage format,” Seth Flowerman, president and CEO of PLT Health Solutions, said. “Offering two dosage levels enables formulators to develop targeted SKUs for both emerging and performance athletes. RipFactor is already being developed as a hero ingredient in a range of leading brands in the active sports nutrition market. Because it enhances strength and endurance in workouts – and builds muscle mass – it is a natural fit in the bodybuilding segment for pre-workout, muscle building, and testosterone boosters, in addition to general performance applications for competitive sports, endurance sports, and fitness training.”
 
The two clinical trials on the new ingredient will be published later this year. PLT Health Solutions reports that, in the first study, an 8-week clinical trial was conducted on young adult males who were familiar with weight training and had at least 6 months of experience with resistance exercise. Improvements in strength, endurance, and muscle size were seen throughout the study period. A statistically significant increase in both upper and lower body strength was observed as early as 14 days, compared to a placebo.
 
The second study, which was conducted last year, focused on resistance training in participants described as ‘naïve’ to resistance exercise. These participants were administered one of two doses, either the ‘performance’ or ‘ultra-performance’ dose. It was shown that subjects taking the ‘performance’ dose also demonstrated similar strength and endurance benefits to subjects doing twice the amount of exercise. At the ‘ultra-performance’ dose, the strength and endurance gains were statistically significantly better than the subjects completing twice the exercise volume. Improvements in testosterone and cortisol levels for the RipFactor group compared to the placebo groups provided a testosterone to cortisol ratio that favors anabolism and could be partially responsible for the muscle growth and strength benefits.
 
“There really isn’t anything else on the market today that drives significant gains in strength as early as two weeks, particularly with a dose less than one gram. RipFactor supports improved physical performance and faster results for a broad range of consumers,” Barbara Davis, head of clinical and regulatory sciences for PLT, said. “For formulators, the clinical work provides a broad range of tools to communicate the range of benefits to consumers – with messaging on physiological and performance improvements every step of the way.”