Spermidine

Spermidine is a naturally occurring aliphatic polyamine — IUPAC N'-(3-aminopropyl)butane-1,4-diamine, C7H19N3, molecular weight 145.25, CAS 124-20-9, PubChem CID 1102. It is a triamine, formed in plants and bacteria from putrescine by spermidine synthase, and it is present in essentially all living cells. The commercially important physical fact is that the free base melts below 25 °C: it is a colourless liquid at room temperature, strongly basic, hygroscopic and quick to pick up carbon dioxide from the air. It therefore cannot be shipped as a bulk powder in its free-base form, and every powder on the market takes one of two routes — a plant extract standardised on spermidine, or the crystalline hydrochloride salt. Thovek supplies both, and they are genuinely different articles with different specifications, different allergen status and different tariff treatment. The standard article is a Triticum aestivum L. germ extract standardised to NLT 1.0% spermidine by HPLC. Wheat germ is the richest common dietary source of spermidine, running at roughly 243 mg/kg — about 0.024% — so the 1.0% grade represents around a forty-fold concentration of the natural level. Ahead of it in the same food group are dried soybeans at about 207 mg/kg and one-year aged Cheddar at about 199 mg/kg, with mushrooms near 89 mg/kg. Production starts from defatted wheat germ recovered in milling, uses water and food-grade ethanol, and finishes by spray drying; any maize maltodextrin carrier is declared on the lot certificate. Grades at 0.2%, 0.5% and 2.0% are made to order. The critical commercial point is allergen status: this material is wheat-derived and CONTAINS GLUTEN. Wheat is a declarable allergen under EU Annex II and a major allergen in the United States, it must appear in your ingredient declaration and allergen box, and the extract must never be described as gluten-free. It is, however, vegan, vegetarian and non-GMO, with no milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean or nut input. Where a gluten declaration is unacceptable — coeliac-positioned lines, gluten-free certified factories, some sports nutrition channels — the alternative is spermidine trihydrochloride, CAS 334-50-9, C7H22Cl3N3, molecular weight 254.6, assayed at NLT 98%. That salt is a white crystalline powder, freely soluble in water, and carries 57.1% spermidine free base by mass, so dose conversion between the two grades is arithmetic rather than guesswork. It is wheat-free, gluten-free, vegan and free of all major allergens, but it is markedly hygroscopic and needs nitrogen-flushed, desiccated packing and low-humidity handling once opened. On regulatory footing, isolated and highly concentrated polyamine preparations may require novel food authorisation under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 in the EU and under the equivalent UK regime, and the status of a wheat germ extract is not automatically the status of a synthetic isolate — confirm the position for your specific article and market before you commit to artwork. Thovek states composition, standardisation and specification only, and makes no therapeutic or disease claim of any kind.