Alpha-Galactosidase Tablets

Alpha-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22, CAS 9025-35-8) is the glycoside hydrolase that clips terminal, non-reducing alpha-D-galactose residues off alpha-D-galactosides - galacto-oligosaccharides, galactomannans and galactolipids - and splits melibiose into galactose and glucose. Human digestion carries no enzyme that does this. The raffinose-family oligosaccharides in pulses, soy and brassicas (raffinose, C18H32O16, CAS 512-69-6; the tetrasaccharide stachyose; the pentasaccharide verbascose) therefore reach the colon intact, where gut bacteria that do carry alpha-galactosidase ferment them to short-chain fatty acids and gas. Supplying the enzyme alongside the meal is a food-technology answer to a substrate the small intestine cannot open. The commercial enzyme is a fermentation product of Aspergillus niger - the same workhorse the industry runs for glucoamylase, pectinases, fructosyltransferase and citric acid, and whose fermentation carries US FDA GRAS status. It is an acid-active enzyme, which suits the point in digestion at which it has to work: a purified A. niger alpha-galactosidase has been characterised with maximum activity at pH 3.5 and 60 degrees C, though the exact optimum is strain- and preparation-dependent. Thovek presents it as a compressed tablet - uncoated, HPMC film-coated, chewable or orally disintegrating - with strength declared in GalU and the assay method written into the agreed specification, because GalU definitions differ between houses and a unit figure without its method is not a specification. Because the active is fungal rather than animal- or plant-protein derived, the allergen picture is clean: no milk, egg, fish, crustacean, soy, peanut, tree nut or gluten input, and the material is vegan and vegetarian with halal and kosher certification available. The Aspergillus niger origin is stated on the label and in the specification, since some buyers screen for fungal-derived actives regardless of allergen status. Tablets are produced in an FSSAI-licensed GMP facility and shipped with a batch certificate of analysis covering GalU activity, disintegration, weight variation, hardness and friability, heavy metals, a mycotoxin screen appropriate to a fungal enzyme, and microbiology, together with allergen, vegan, non-GMO, halal and kosher statements and full export paperwork.