Policosanol Tablets

Policosanol is a generic name for a mixture of very long chain primary aliphatic alcohols refined from plant wax, with carbon backbones running from about C24 to C34. Its lead component is 1-octacosanol, CAS 557-61-9, C28H58O, molecular weight 410.77, melting at 83 °C - the same fatty alcohol that occurs widely in the epicuticular waxes of grasses and cereals and in wheat germ. Alongside it sit triacontanol (C30), hexacosanol (C26), dotriacontanol (C32), tetracosanol (C24), heptacosanol, nonacosanol and tetratriacontanol. The reference sugar cane wax profile is roughly 66% octacosanol, 12% triacontanol and 7% hexacosanol with the balance made up of the minor alcohols, and commercial standardisation is normally written as total policosanol of 90% or 95% minimum with octacosanol declared separately, commonly at 50-60% minimum. That second figure matters more than buyers expect. Because policosanol names a profile rather than a molecule, two lots both truthfully labelled "policosanol 90%" can carry materially different octacosanol contents, so the specification has to fix total alcohol content and the individual chain distribution, both determined by gas chromatography. The wax source is not a detail, it is a declaration. Sugar cane wax from Saccharum officinarum is the reference material and is what Thovek supplies: the wax is recovered as a by-product of cane processing, hydrolysed or saponified, the unsaponifiable alcohol fraction separated, then solvent fractionated and recrystallised to the declared profile. Policosanol is also manufactured from rice bran wax, from beeswax and from wheat germ, and those routes are not commercially interchangeable. Beeswax-derived policosanol is of insect origin and cannot be sold as vegan; wheat germ-derived material raises a gluten question that a supplement brand should not have to answer after launch; rice bran wax and sugar cane wax are both vegan and gluten-free. Anyone quoting policosanol without naming the wax is leaving the buyer's allergen and diet declarations undefined. On the tabletting side, policosanol is a waxy, hydrophobic, low-density powder with poor flow, so it is granulated with a soluble carrier before compression; attempting direct compression of the neat material gives poor content uniformity, and that is the single most common cause of a failed first pilot batch on this ingredient. Regulatory status varies by market more than for most nutraceutical ingredients. Policosanol carries the WHO ATC code C10AX08 and is registered as a medicine in parts of the Caribbean and Central and South America, while in other markets it trades as a supplement ingredient - the same chemical material, two entirely different regulatory files, and a brand cannot assume its home-market status travels. Claim wording must be checked against the destination market's authorised-claims list before artwork is signed off; Thovek supplies identity, specification and analysis only and makes no health claim of its own. On the sugar cane route the allergen picture is clean, with no milk, egg, fish, crustacean, soy, peanut, tree nut or gluten input, and the finished tablet is vegan and vegetarian where a vegan-compatible coating and lubricant system is used. Note finally that the finished tablet and the bulk powder do not share a tariff code, which is set out in the classification note below.