Ubiquinol and CoQ10 (Ubiquinol: CoQ10's Quantum Leap)

Dietary supplement manufacturers and formulators have long understood the importance of developing innovative nutrients and formulations. In fact, natural products retail stores have been the starting point for nutrients now found widely in mass-market venues. Do you remember when creatine monohydrate and whey protein were only available in stores selling juicers and books about the healing power of amino acids? Today, these nutrients have expanded from health food and can be bought in warehouse clubs that also sell bicycles and discounted gasoline. Another example is fish oil; after consistent support in health food stores, this lipid has received immense popularity and widespread awareness.

Cutting-edge nutrition is commercially critical and embraced by our industry. One ingredient currently in the mass market spotlight is coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and is due in great part to the medical profession’s investigation into whether supplementation with this nutrient could make up for depletions in the body linked to the intake of cholesterol-lowering statin pharmaceuticals. Recently, Kaneka Nutrients L.P. launched ubiquinol, which it supplies as the trademarked ingredient Kaneka QH™, after completing a new dietary ingredient (NDI) submission to FDA. Ubiquinol is in position to become a nutritional shining star and retailers need to understand its general points.

The Basics

Although you may have only recently become aware of ubiquinol, it is a member of the CoQ10 family. CoQ10 enjoys an international following as an antioxidant associated with cardiovascular health. When we read or hear about antioxidants, such as CoQ10 or vitamin C, it’s easy to assume we are talking about a single molecule. However, that’s incorrect. Vitamin C exists in nature as ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid, and the two have very different properties. For example, dehydroascorbic acid is capable of penetration past the blood brain barrier (BBB), while ascorbic acid is not.¹

CoQ10 is another antioxidant that exists as a pair: ubiquinone (oxidized CoQ10) and ubiquinol (reduced CoQ10). When CoQ10 loses electrons, it is oxidized and becomes ubiquinone. This ubiquinone form has been a fundamental part of the natural products retail heart health section for decades. Ubiquinol has a slight variation from ubiquinone in that it is “reduced.” In science, “reduced” refers to a gain of electrons, and ubiquinol has two hydrogen atoms and two electrons more than ubiquinone. The reduction results in the conversion of two ketone groups into hydroxyl groups, thereby increasing the polarity of the quinone ring (Figure 1).

Bioavailability

In one study, powdered-filled hard shell caps of ubiquinone were compared to solubilized softgels of ubiquinone and ubiquinol. The best of all three formulations was the solubilized ubiquinol.² More recently, the powerful bioavailability of ubiquinol was demonstrated in a 2007 published study.³ In this study, 150 mg/d of ubiquinol in a softgel resulted in blood values of 3.84 mcg/mL plasma. The same journal published a similar study a year earlier that showed it took nearly 900 mg/d of ubiquinone to reach those types of blood values.⁴ The formulations and subjects differed between these studies so that direct comparison of the results between both studies would be complicated. More comparative trials will help us understand the variance in absorption between the forms.

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