Cosmax Bio Co., an original development manufacturing (ODM) company that specializes in health functional foods and medical supplies, developed a nutritional supplement using gold caviar, a rare and extremely expensive ingredient priced at 46 million won ($34,491) per kilogram.

Cosmax Bio under Cosmax Group announced the development of the nutritional supplement using caviar extract, known as one of the world’s top three delicacies, on Thursday.

Cosmax Bio has confirmed this extract has extensive skin improvement effects and applied for a patent in Korea.

Caviar is among the world’s top three delicacies alongside truffles and foie gras. Gold caviar in particular is exceptionally pricey due to its mutation, which allows it to be harvested solely from Albino Beluga sturgeons.

The price of gold caviar, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, can go up to $34,500 per kilogram. Caviar is known to be rich in amino acids, fatty acids, and minerals, as well as aid in skin healing and synthesize collagen, among other benefits.

Research on using caviar as a raw material in cosmetics has been ongoing for a while, and Cosmax Bio became the first company in the world to conduct clinical trials to use the ingredient as a nutritional supplement for skin improvement and successfully develop related products.

Cosmax Bio conducted research by sourcing raw materials from Almas Caviar, South Korea’s largest caviar farm, and increased the urea amino acid content by up to 180 times compared to gold caviar raw materials via this partnership.

Urea amino acids are amino acids in molecular form with faster absorption rates than typical amino acids.

Skin improvement effects are also significantly enhanced with more active ingredients. In human application trials, significant improvements in wrinkles, elasticity, hydration, and melanin pigmentation were observed in the caviar extract consumption group after four weeks of intake. The caviar extract consumption group showed nearly four times the improvement in skin elasticity compared to the consumption of typical low molecular weight collagen peptides, according to Cosmax Bio.

This is the first time that more than four skin improvement effects have been confirmed in clinical trials for caviar raw materials. Cosmax Bio published the results from its research in the international journal Nutrients in December 2023.

By Lee Sae-bom and Lee Eun-joo

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