Bilberry and Lutein Eye Capsules

Bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus L., is a small dark European berry whose commercial value sits almost entirely in its anthocyanins. Fourteen to fifteen of them have been characterised in the fruit, dominated by the 3-glycosides of delphinidin and cyanidin with petunidin, peonidin and malvidin behind them. The trade grade is the refined extract standardised to 25% anthocyanidins, which the same material is also quoted as 36% anthocyanosides, and the pharmacopoeial reference point is the European Pharmacopoeia monograph on fresh bilberry fruit dry extract, refined and standardised (07/2008:2394). That monograph requires 32.4 to 39.6 per cent anthocyanins calculated as cyanidin 3-O-glucoside chloride, on a drug-to-extract ratio of 153-76:1 using methanol 70% V/V. Anything sold as bilberry 25% that cannot show the chromatographic pattern behind that number is not the same product. Bilberry is one of the most adulterated botanicals in the trade, because cheaper anthocyanin sources - black rice, mulberry, black soybean hull, elderberry, and in the worst cases synthetic azo dyes - can hit a UV colour number without carrying the bilberry fingerprint. Every lot here is identified by HPLC and HPTLC against the anthocyanin profile rather than by total-colour UV alone, and the species is confirmed to exclude the cultivated blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum and the bog bilberry V. uliginosum. The second active is marigold lutein (CAS 127-40-2, C40H56O2, MW 568.87) from saponified Tagetes erecta L. oleoresin, supplied as a cold-water-dispersible beadlet at 5%, 10% or 20% so that it blends and flows as a dry powder instead of fighting the encapsulator, and carrying its naturally co-occurring zeaxanthin (CAS 144-68-3) at 2 to 9% of the carotenoid fraction. The two actives are declared separately on the label because they are bought on different assays and neither stands in for the other; the ratio, and any vitamin A, riboflavin (CAS 83-88-5) or zinc placed alongside them, is fixed by the approved formula. Shell is vegan HPMC by default, which keeps the whole capsule plant-based, with bovine gelatin available where a buyer prefers it. Neither bilberry anthocyanins nor lutein holds an authorised EU health claim, so European labels that need a claim carry it on vitamin A, riboflavin or zinc, each of which has an authorised claim for contribution to the maintenance of normal vision. Anthocyanins are light-, heat- and pH-sensitive, so the blend is processed cold, kept dry and packed opaque.