TITLE:
Quality Evaluation of Carnitine for Proper Use of Supplement
AUTHORS:
Yuka Miyachi, Chika Nakayama, Taeyuki Oshima
KEYWORDS:
Supplement, Disintegration Test, Dissolution Test, Carnitine
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.12 No.2,
February
26,
2021
ABSTRACT: In recent
years, consumers are becoming more health-conscious. Supplements are becoming
popular as they can be purchased easily. In Japan, the “Food with Function
Claims” system began in 2015; the market for supplements is expected to
continue to expand. However, the use of some supplements has not been supported
with sufficient scientific evidence; some products have even caused health problems. In addition, consumers may not be able to
make correct decisions based on the information from the Internet. Unlike
medicine, the instruction on the usage of supplements is not precise. Therefore,
improving the quality of the information on the supplements will become more
necessary in the future. This study aims to improve the quality of the
information on supplements by surveying the disintegration and dissolution
behavior of the carnitine-containing supplements and evaluated their quality. The products tested here were
supplements containing commercial carnitine. Disintegration test and
dissolution test were conducted according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia.
Carnitine was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The disintegration tests revealed that
the products had different
disintegration times, varying from 35 to 100 minutes; some products took more
than 5 hours to disintegrate. Thus, some products had a slow rise in their
dissolution rate. These results suggest that the carnitine-containing
supplements used in this study may affect the absorption process. Therefore, in
the case of oral administration, the expected effect might not be achieved
depending on the product.