NMN’s longevity function questioned

Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/15 21:33:01

File photo: IC

It's very hard for anti-aging NMN supplements to achieve the advertised effects, a Chinese expert has said, amid rising popularity for the supplement in China.

The comment came after media reports said that NMN producer GeneHarbor (Hong Kong) Biotechnologies Ltd is building a HK$2 billion ($255 million) manufacturing facility in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, which is expected to raise the company's production capacity by ten to 20 times.

Currently, GeneHarbor mainly sells drink supplements, facial masks and cream, Hong Kong newspaper Takungpao reported. Sales of NMN9000 series increased 30 times in the past 18 months, the report said, citing GeneHarbor founder Wang Jun. "Two years ago, no more than 1,000 people knew NMN products, but today at least 10 million people across the country have heard of the product," he was quoted as saying.

On the company's website, it said that using NMN supplements, scientists successfully reverted the biological age of a lab mouse from 2 years old to 6 months old, equivalent to a 60-year-old man returning to 20 years old.

However, Zhu Yi, an associate professor of food security and nutrition at China Agricultural University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday that NMN supplements might not be as effective as advertised. 

"NMN helps trigger only a few anti-aging pathways instead of all the anti-aging functions. Also, different kinds of drink supplements and drugs have different absorption rates," she said, adding that some cannot be easily absorbed by human beings.

In fact, fruit and vegetables like vegetable soybean and avocado are rich in NMN, Zhu said.

Posted in: COMPANIES

blog comments powered by Disqus