Many fruits and vegetables contain lutein, but due to the low content, it cannot be easily separated. The occurrence of marigold flowers makes it to be an easily thing. Marigold flower is an annual herb with orange color. Lutein is firstly been found in marigold flower petals from Switzerland. It exists as an‘esterified’ form and is commonly known as lutein ester. Lutein ester is derived from marigold flowers, which is a rich, safe and natural source of lutein.

Marigold flowers is originally planted in Mexico, but currently in Heilongjiang, Jilin, inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Yunnan province and other places of China also have large-scale cultivation.

lutein is present in plants as fatty-acid esters, with one or two fatty acids bound to the two hydroxyl-groups. For this reason, saponification (de-esterfication) of lutein esters to yield free lutein may yield lutein in any ratio from 1:1 to 1:2 molar ratios with the saponifying fatty acid. So there are two kinds of products form extract from marigold flower, lutein and lutein ester.

[  Marigold Flower Extract ]

We have two kinds of Marigold Flower Extract, lutein ester and lutein free which are all come from marigold flower.

 Lutein ester is directly separated from marigold flower by recrystallization. And lutein free is obtained by saponification of lutein oleoresin.

There are many differences between these two kinds of products. For example, lutein ester is an oil soluble material, but lutein itself is not. Lutein ester is a dark-red powder, and lutein is a yellow-orange powder. We show you 2 HPLC spectrums contrast the difference between them. 

We can provide both of them with the specification of UV/HPLC 5%~90%. And we can also produce the micro-capsule of lutein and lutein ester which could be much stable in air and sunlight, and could be soluble in cold water, we call it CWS. The lutein and lutein ester micro-capsule use some hydrophilic materials as the shell which embedding the lutein or lutein ester in it. Because of the hydrophilic shell, lutein or lutein ester avoid from the light and oxygen which became much stable and water soluble. This picture shows the micro-capsule under electron microscopy, in which we can found that lutein embedded by the shell and to be micro-capsule.

[ How to use lutein (dosage)? ]

    Without adequate consumption, the amount of lutein in the eye may deplete with age. Leading doctor 

recommend you to get at least 6 mg of lutein per day to help maintain proper eye health. Since your 

body could not synthesize lutein, you must constantly absorb it through the foods you eat. Dark, leafy 

green vegetables like spinach and kale are especially good sources. But you have to eat over 2 bowls of

 raw spinach every day to get the recommended daily dose of 6 mg lutein. Taking a multivitamin may 

help, but many multivitamins contain only a fraction of the recommended 6 mg lutein. In fact, the leading 

multivitamin contains just 0 .25 mg of lutein − a mere 4% of the recommended amount.

According to the report from American FDA, a recommend dosage is 6-12mg lutein per day. 

[ Side effects of lutein ]

 Since the human body does not synthesize its own lutein, the artificial form of lutein masquerades 

as the pure form and deposits itself onto the human skin and within the eyes, overdose can cause your 

skin become yellow. In comparison to this disastrous series of bodily events, a natural intake would 

have ensured the body to absorb the lutein in a controlled manner as opposed to unnecessarily piling 

up and creating layers on the human skin. Thus, it is very important to consume lutein under the 

supervision of an ophthalmologist or a physician.