The Quality Control Assessment of Commercially Available Coenzyme Q10-Containing Dietary and Health Supplements in Japan

Abstract

Summary Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) has been widely commercially available in Japan as a dietary and health supplement since 2001 and is used for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases induced by free radicals and aging. We evaluated CoQ10 supplements to ensure that these supplements can be used effectively and safely. Commercially available products were selected and assessed by the quality control tests specified in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia XV. When the disintegration time of CoQ10 supplements was measured, a few tested supplements did not completely disintegrate even after incubation in water for an hour at 37°C. In the content test, many samples were well controlled. However, a few supplements showed low recovery rates of CoQ10 as compared to manufacturer's indicated contents. Among soft capsule and liquid supplements, the reduced form of CoQ10 (H2CoQ10), as well as the oxidized form, was detected by HPLC with electrochemical detector. The results for experimental formulated CoQ10 supplements demonstrated that H2CoQ10 was produced by the interaction of CoQ10 with vitamins E and/or C. From these results, we concluded that quality varied considerably among the many supplement brands containing CoQ10. Additionally, we also demonstrated that H2CoQ10 can be detected in some foods as well as in CoQ10 supplements.

The coenzyme Q10 content of food supplements

“…CoQ10 content in % of labelled value per cent (%) of tested samples N=57 Fig. 1 Distribution of tested food supplements in relation to the content ratio of CoQ10 It is interesting to compare our observations with the results of a similar study performed on products containing CoQ10 from the Japanese market (Kettawan et al 2007). The authors concluded that the quality of tested supplements varied considerably among brands.…”

“…Only a few products exhibited insufficient quality performance. In relation to this, it should be mentioned that Japan has a very well-developed CoQ10 market with over 200 different food supplements available from over 100 different producers (Kettawan et al 2007). This strong competition might also partially explain the overall better content ratio of CoQ10 containing supplements on the Japanese market.…”

“…The monitoring of supplements containing bioactive chemical compounds other than vitamins and minerals is very rare in Europe. The quality of food supplements containing coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) was addressed in Japan; 80-130% of the labelled CoQ10 content was found in 86% of tested samples (Kettawan et al 2007). A recent study performed by the National Institute of Chemistry on over 30 food supplements showed that about 40% of tested products contained \80% of the labelled lutein content; no active ingredient was found in some samples (Jaksic 2010).…”

Emulsification of Coenzyme Q₁₀ Using Gum Arabic Increases Bioavailability in Rats and Human and Improves Food-Processing Suitability

“…CoQ10 by itself barely survived under the same conditions (data not shown). The undetected CoQ10 was considered to be in the reduced form, because ubiquinol-10 is produced by the interaction of CoQ10 with vitamin E and/or vitamin C in CoQ10 supplements (38). The lipophilic part of the gum arabic molecule is responsible for the molecule's emulsifying ability (39).…”

Electrochemical detection of lipophilic antioxidants with high sensitivity at boron-doped diamond electrode

“…The reduced level of antioxidants in plasma has been reported to be associated with numerous chronic diseases; therefore, determination of these antioxidants in physiological fluids should be an important subject in analytical chemistry. Besides clinical applications, reliable determination of these antioxidant concentrations in foods, cosmetics, dietary supplements could be beneficial in related industrial fields [7]. VE and CoQ 10 are electroactive compounds that can be analyzed by electrochemical techniques.…”