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To sustain its economic development and meet the broad needs of its consumers, China faces challenges in obtaining basic materials. This rising demand has recently driven up the world price of many commodities. At the same time, the challenges in China for investors include the stability of the banking system, protection of intellectual property, adherence to trade commitments, and China’s half billion strong rural population (which has not yet benefited from the growing national prosperity). In response, the government is accelerating the process of urbanization into the rural areas. Starting December 11, 2004, under China’s World Trade Organization Market-opening promises, foreign retailers will be able to wholly own stores in any city, rather than just a handful of the largest cities and provincial capitals. As a result, the two biggest international retailers in China, Carrefour and WalMart are poised to expand aggressively in 2005. At the same time, Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly discerning, with health and nutrition becoming major concerns, and affordability no longer the dominant consideration. I was able to see the Chinese growth phenomenon first hand on a business trip in September, and it was truly remarkable to see the construction on every corner--skies filled with cranes, ground being cleared for more construction--all of this on a scale that was looking toward the long term future expectations of the world’s most populous, and most sought after consumer market. It was such a difference from my original trip in 1997 to the major cities in northern China. It is amazing how fast their economy has responded; many have commented it is the fastest in recorded history. Aloecorp has also invested in China, with the opening of a sales office in Haikou, and an Aloe farm being developed south of the city. We are excited about the prospects of better serving our growing customers and prospects in the Asian markets, and to be a part of the remarkable economic transition unfolding in China. For all your business needs in Asia, please contact our office in China, which is managed by Mr. Jeff Han: Aloecorp - ASIA
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You may recall the last IASC Seminar scheduled in Seoul was to begin on September 11, 2001. Only the Board of Directors and a handful of attendees were able to arrive in Seoul before all airlines ceased operations due to the terrorist threat. The Seminar was cancelled but because of the graciousness of the Korean people and particularly the staff and management of the COEX Intercontinental Hotel, the IASC promised to return. This year we did and it will rank as one of the most successful ever! Attendance was strong and the scientific papers were well-prepared and well-presented—with simultaneous translations provided in numerous languages to accommodate the international delegation. We owe a great deal of gratitude to Namyang Aloe for hosting this event and to their wonderful and capable staff--headed by Mr. S T Oh, for the many, many hours of hard work it took to insure the success of the event. IASC Staff were assisted by employees from Namyang Aloe in every conceivable area, including professional banners and colorful signage throughout the seminar meeting rooms. We also had extensive media coverage from the major newspapers, magazines and TV stations. The IASC Board Meeting was very productive with two highlights: (1) election of two new Board members: Dr. Qi Jia of Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Lacey, Washington; and Mr. Jesper Hummeluhr of Aloe Vera Group ApS in Denmark. Both bring a great deal of talent and capabilities to the IASC; and (2) decision to hold the 24th Annual Scientific Seminar in 2005 on South Padre Island, Texas, September 9-10, returning to the roots of the Aloe Industry - the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Check the IASC website for details at www.iasc.org Dr. Warren J. Goux, representing the University of Texas at Dallas, was the 9th recipient of the coveted Chairman YunHo Lee Scientific Award of Merit. Dr. Goux presented a very insightful paper, “Chemical Characterization of the Immunomodulating Polysaccharide of Aloe vera L." Also, Mr. Jess F. Clarke, Jr. was honored with the 2004 IASC Hall of Fame Award for his immeasurable contributions benefiting the Aloe Industry. Through the years, Mr. Clarke has untiringly served in just about every capacity within the IASC organization. Aloecorp will be exhibiting at the 2004 Health Ingredients - Europe in Amsterdam November 16-18. We will share our booth with Will & Co., our exclusive Representative for Netherlands and Belgium and our sister-company, Unigen Pharmaceuticals. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Rene Van Lohuizen and Mr. Rob Koebrugger of Will & Co for coordinating this event. Will & Co is an excellent example of the partnerships Aloecorp has established around the world. In conjunction with the Health Ingredients Europe Expo, Aloecorp will hold its 3rd European Representatives Workshop on November 15 at the Amsterdam Hilton. A full day of presentations and discussions will take place with Aloecorp Representatives from all over Europe, along with presentations by Ken Jones, Aloecorp Director of Research and Development, and John Rhees, Aloecorp President & CEO. We will also be joined by Derek Hall, President and CEO of Unigen Pharmaceuticals and Co-Chairman of Univera Incorporated of Lacey, Washington. A great deal of gratitude is given to Ken Jones, Barb Apps, Jennifer Taphorn of Taphorn Design, and Norma Garza and staff of Aloecorp. The Workshop is a great experience and opportunity to increase our knowledge of Aloe and strengthen our relationships with each other. I will report on this meeting in the next issue of ALOE TODAY. Until then, let's continue to "Bring the Best of Nature to all Humankind.” ___________________________________________________
ALOECORP
NEW EMPLOYEES Mr. Javier Sanchez Solano joins our management team in Gonzales, Mexico as the Plant Operations Manager overseeing a workforce of more than 250 employees and Aloecorp’s 1,400 acres of Aloe fields. Mr. Sanchez brings vast international experience to the Aloecorp team, with a 23-year manufacturing career involving food and beverage industries in various countries. With the recent upgrades and the opening of a new aloe processing and manufacturing facility at our Lyford, Texas location, Aloecorp has added a new Quality Assurance Manager. Robert Espinoza has ten years of product research and development experience. Mr. Espinoza was most recently employed with the DPT Laboratories, a product development, manufacturing, and packaging and distribution health products company located in San Antonio, Texas. SUPPLYSIDE TRADE SHOW Supplyside West was once again held at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, and has always been a booming success. Supplyside continues to grow in both exhibitors and attendees and is one of the best shows for our industry. This year there were 460 Booths with 670 Exhibitors and more than 5,000 visitors. Aloecorp was pleased to share booth space with our sister company Unigen Pharmaceuticals just inside the main entrance. Unigen sponsored the Key Note Speaker, Marilu Henner. Ms. Henner was made famous by the sitcom “Taxi” and is now a devotee of nutritional supplements and natural health. For all of you who stopped by to say hello to us, it was great to see you again. We appreciate your business and always look forward to seeing each of you at the various trade shows. Our next exhibit will be at Natural Products Expo in Washington, D.C. followed by the Health Ingredients Show in Amsterdam, Netherlands. ___________________________________________________
Dr. Byung Pal Yu, one of the legends of aloe, led off the presentations by making an observation we are all familiar with--that most health claims made about natural products are scientifically unsubstantiated, which raises critical questions about their safety and efficacy, and draws the attention of the FDA and FTC. Dr. Yu presented a summary of his study on the Efficacy of dietary aloe vera supplementation on hepatic cholesterol and oxidative status in aged rats published in the Journal of Nutritional Science & Vitaminology in August of 2003. This remarkable study showed that life-long consumption of aloe had no adverse effects on weight or growth rate of rats and that kidney disease, the leading cause of death in these rats, was suppressed. Life-long supplementation with aloe also maintained heart muscle strength and reduced atrial blood clots, a major cause of heart failure in these animals. Results of this extensive study, including kidney and heart protection, reducing oxidative stress and lowering cholesterol, show that aloe supplementation is beneficial in reducing the risk of illness. One further comment on this study; I have often been asked if aloe powder is as effective as juice so I would like to point out that the aloe in this study, for two test groups, was aloe powder mixed with the chow (formulated by Purina) and in a third group the aloe was added to the drinking water. All groups benefited from aloe supplementation, and I’m especially pleased to say that Aloecorp’s aloe was used in this study. From the University of Korea, results of a study on allergic disease show that alprogen (a purified extract from aloe) inhibits many symptoms of allergies. Specifically, alprogen improved respiratory airflow, reduced microvascular leakage, inhibited histamine production and the accumulation of mast cells (which release histamine) in nasal mucosa and lung tissue. From our sister companies, Unigen and Namyang Aloe Company, we heard of another fraction isolated from aloe that inhibits fibrillogenesis, which is responsible for triggering physiological events that contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers suggest that this Aloe vera extract may be useful as a treatment for prevention of Alzheimer’s. Remarkable! Dr. Ahmed Abdullah, a Plastic Surgeon and Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine (and IASC Board member) presented results of his acid based skin exfoliation product containing aloe. Dr. Abdullah explained that OTC skin exfoliation products have limited effectiveness due to a higher pH than physician supervised exfoliation treatments. When aloe is added to an effective, more acidic exfoliation product, it acts as an anti-inflammatory to reduce burns making it safer to use. Everyone was looking forward to hearing about the “drag-reducing polymer derived from Aloe vera”, a study performed at the University of Pittsburgh and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. This recent study was sponsored by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to test whether a small amount of polymer could prevent hemorrhagic shock and keep battlefield victims alive another hour or two while they are evacuated. Aloe polysaccharides are normally discussed in terms of their biological activity, such as activating macrophage, resulting in stimulation of the immune system. In the role of a “drag-reducing polymer” the aloe polysaccharide’s physical properties make blood more slippery. Some organic or synthetically produced polymers are known to have this physical property and have been used in the Alaskan pipeline and firefighting. In this case the aloe polysaccharides help blood move from larger arteries to increasingly narrow pre-capillary vessels and capillaries and in this study the researchers found that rats that suffered severe blood loss were five times more likely to survive hemorrhagic shock if treated with the aloe vera-derived polymer. Congratulations Dr. Warren Goux, winner of the Yun-Ho Lee Scientific Merit Award for his work on the characterization of the structure of aloe polysaccharides. It would be impossible to give a fair account here of the work Dr. Goux presented at the IASC meeting. What I can do is tell you, briefly, that Dr. Goux found an acid resistant fraction of the aloe polysaccharide containing a different monosugar composition than the primary mannose backbone that has previously been described. The acid resistant fraction represents a previously unknown substructure of the aloe polysaccharide that, with further study, could refine our understanding of the biological activities of aloe. Dr. Wang of Department of Horticultural Sciences at the Texas A&M University of Agricultural Research and Extension Center provided an excellent summary of good agricultural practices for growing healthy aloe. Dr. Santiago Rodriguez delivered a well researched report on the production and distribution of aloe worldwide. He reports that worldwide cultivation of aloe has reached 23,589 hectares (58,290 acres) producing approximately $124 million in sales. Dr. Chong-Kil Lee reported recent work from the College of Pharmacy at the Chungbuk National University, South Korea, showing that smaller molecular weight aloe polysaccharides (less than 400,000 Dalton) exhibit the most potent macrophage-activating activity and the most potent antitumor activity in vivo. Dr. Lee pointed out that smaller molecular weight molecules are usually preferred due to bioavailability issues and that, interestingly, partial digestion of aloe polysaccharides to enhance the concentration of lower weight polysaccharides increases their macrophage-activating and antitumor activity. Dr. Lee’s work at the Chungbuk National University supports the work of another Yun-Ho Lee Scientific Merit Award winner, Dr. Julia Qiu, who presented her paper on the Activation and characterization of Aloe barbadensis gel in 1998. The results of that two and a half year study resulted in a patented method of processing Aloe vera that has been shown to retain and enhance the native activity of Aloe vera. This patented method of processing aloe is licensed exclusively to Aloecorp. Dr. Qi Jia, Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Unigen Pharmaceuticals, also presented new data that follows up on Dr. Qiu’s work from 1998. In this study it was shown that modified aloe polysaccharides (ACTIValoe™ molecular weight profile) showed a dose-dependent stimulation of genes involved in the expression of immune regulatory cytokines. Cytokines are instrumental in the regulation of inflammation and the differentiation and activation of effector cells of immune responses, including macrophages and T lymphocytes. Dr. Jia reports that aloe polysaccharides modified by these methods up-regulated immune regulatory gene expression significantly more than polysaccharides isolated from Echinacea. I know it’s not the same as being there, but I hope this report on the scientific papers presented at this year’s IASC meeting in Seoul will provide you with some sense of the inspiration those of us in attendance felt, and continue to feel, about our commitment to the remarkable Aloe vera plant and the health benefit it provides us. From Aloecorp, our thanks to Gene Hale and everyone at the IASC, NamYang Aloe, Bill Lee, and all those behind the scenes that made this years IASC meeting one of the most memorable and successful in history. To submit an “Ask Ken”
question or to provide comments, send an email to ___________________________________________________
The answer is simple. Aloe vera was in the process of being reviewed by the Cosmetic Industry Review (CIR) committee (cirinfo@cir-safety.org), which assesses the safety of ingredients used in cosmetics. Experts review cosmetic ingredients in an unbiased manner and the results are published in open peer reviewed literature. An ingredient not reviewed by the CIR is listed as an “ingredient of unknown safety.” The CIR was established in 1976 by the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA), and is supported by the Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Federation of America. The CIR works independently from the CTFA and the Cosmetics Industry. The final report on the safety of Aloe was published in June 2004, is 54 pages long and I am pleased to announce the facts weighed in and Aloe vera scored a first round knockout. Aloe vera was found to be safe as cosmetic ingredients; but was there really any doubt? Not on my part. I wrote that Aloe vera was found to be safe…only the Aloe barbadensis Miller species (aka, Aloe vera)...there was insufficient scientific support to approve the safety of any other Aloe species. The Aloe vera supplied by Aloecorp and most in the industry supply was found safe as a cosmetic ingredient. The CIR Expert Panel concluded that Aloe Barbadensis Flower Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Aloe Barbadensis Polysaccharides, and Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water are safe as cosmetic ingredients in the practices of use and concentrations as described in the CIR’s safety assessment, as long as anthraquinone levels do not exceed 50 ppm. Aloe Barbadensis is the species of Aloe vera that Aloecorp and most other suppliers grow and process to provide this miraculous plant juice. We know it as Aloe or Aloe vera, however the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) refers to Aloe vera Gel; Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice and Aloe vera Whole Leaf; Aloe Barbadensis Leaf, and this is the nomenclature to be used on product labels. Aloecorp supplies Aloe Barbadensis Leaf and Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice with Anthraquinone levels well below the 50 Parts Per Million stated in the final CIR Report. Also stated in the Final Report were some limits on heavy metals (20 PPM), arsenic (3 PPM) and lead (5 PPM). A heavy metals test done on Aloecorp Aloe vera has heavy metals at less than .9 PPM, Arsenic .005 PPM and lead .10 PPM. All of these levels are well below the limits set by the CIR. The facts still remain, after thousands of years of use, Aloe vera is still considered safe as a cosmetic ingredient, and Aloecorp will still continue to supply only “The Best of Nature to Humankind”…and animals too! ___________________________________________________
Metrosexuals: The Newest Demographic in Personal Care Rising income levels of consumers in major markets of Western Europe, North America and Asia has created a new demographic called the “Metrosexual”--an urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle. About 89% of men in Europe and the US consider good grooming and general presentation as essential to professional success. The changing nature of employment, with men shifting to white-collar jobs from traditional male blue-collar jobs may also be a key factor in men taking more care of their appearance. Lastly, TV shows such as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” has thrust the issue of male grooming into the public eye.
Metrosexuals have been described as the “latest highly coveted psychographic shopper showing up on marketers’ radar screens.” A recent ACNielsen study on Personal Care purchases across nearly 60 categories found that sales of male-oriented personal products grew twice as fast as those of female-oriented products. Sales of men’s cosmetics and anti-aging products are witnessing double-digit growth in the US market, whereas general cosmetic sales are slowing. Further research by Mintel on the European market for men’s grooming products says that sales of male skincare products increased about five times in the past five years Major brands have already begun to capitalize on this burgeoning market. Procter & Gamble announced an exclusive licensing agreement with OT OverTime to market a line of Personal Care products developed for “tweens” (ages 8-12) and teenage (ages 13-17) boys. Unilever’s male-focused brand AXE (targeted to men 18-24), now available in more than 58 countries, saw its product line expand from a body spray to a roll-on deodorant, a shower gel, a pre-shave and post-shave product and a hair gel. Gillete’s Right Guard has introduced “Xtreme Cool Spray,” an antiperspirant and deodorant sold in a bullet-shaped bottle with a spray nozzle on its side, similar to a fire extinguisher. Old Spice (P&G) launched a deodorant body spray under the “Red Zone” brand. One of the Red Zone body wash products features a fluffy baby chick attached to the side of the bottle as a “chick magnet.” Avon has launched its first cosmetics and personal care lines to be marketed directly at the male consumer in its “M – The Men’s Catalog” publication. According to ACNielsen, before the new men’s body sprays began to appear in the US market in 2002, women’s deodorant outsold men’s. Now, it’s the reverse. Sales of men’s deodorants and antiperspirants have surged 13% in the past three years, while sales of women’s deodorant and antiperspirant have declined nearly 12%. Men’s body sprays also appeal to “tween” and teen boys who want to seem older. Unlike fancy designer fragrances for men, which can cost $50 or more, deodorant body sprays are affordable to teenage budgets, averaging between $4 and $5 for a four-ounce can. Teenage boys are particularly attracted to body sprays, even though they are marketed to older 18-24 year old boys. Unlike traditional, underarm deodorants, the new body sprays are meant to be applied all over the body. The sprays’ popularity with boys is a sign of what analysts call “age compression,” young kids wanting products typically aimed at older kids and adults. The sprays are marketed with edgy advertising promising that girls will swoon over the scents. Unilever’s AXE brand comes in a wide choice of scents (referred to as “flavors”), such as VOODOO, “an oriental, spicy scent, for the mysterious, deep guy effect. A sure way to put a spell on that sultry, otherworldly vixen.” Or, how about ORION, “An energetic, exhilarating scent, for the extreme sports guy effect. Never fails to attract tall, blonde skater chicks.” Even young men and boys on tight budgets are buying more than one scent, which they apply at different times to suit the occasion. To make the most impact of your marketing efforts targeting the “metrosexual,” the ACNielsen report makes the following conclusions: the average age of male consumers is increasing due to the aging population; removing embarrassment is key to encouraging experimentation; and most men value function over fashion. In addition, men want speed, convenience and immediate results; portability is also important. The report suggests that formulators should shift from alcohol-based products to gentler formulations, and target women as they are important purchasers of male products. Lastly, as the metrosexuals pride themselves on being kind, caring and emotional, so must be the marketing that is being developed to attract them.
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