Biothera Helps USP Set Standard for Yeast Beta Glucan

EAGAN, Minn.Biothera announced it collaborated with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) to develop the first official monograph for yeast beta glucan (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae), an ingredient recognized for its immune-health benefits. 

 The monograph was recently issued in the Third Supplement of the Seventh Edition of the Food Chemicals Codex, a compendium of standards for the purity and identity of food ingredients.

Biothera contributed the reference standard and two methods for identifying and quantifying the beta 1,3/1,6 branched glucan polymer derived from the cell walls of bakers yeast, as well as additional methods to assure the purity of the material.

Biothera is pleased to share its expertise in carbohydrate chemistry to help set the industry standard for characterizing and analyzing beta glucan from bakers yeast," said Rich Mueller, Biothera chief executive officer. 

We are pleased the USP recognized the technical merit of our analytical methods, and validated and adopted our analytical methods aspart of the new monograph," said Andy Magee, Ph.D., Biothera vice president of Chemistry. 

The USP Expert Committee approved the proposed monographs after being published in Pharmacopeial Forum for public comment. 

According to the company, the identification method uses Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to detect glucan branch linkages. To quantify the purity of the beta glucan content, Biothera developed the Glucan Enzymatic Method (GEM) Assay that was recently published in the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.