Squalene

Squalene is a natural triterpene, an intermediate for the biosynthesis of phytosterol or cholesterol in plants, animals and humans, widespread in animal and vegetal kingdom. It was identified for the first time in 1916 by Matsumaru Tsujimoto from the liver of sharks but it is also found in the human body, secreted by sebaceous glands for skin protection, and forms part of 10-15% of lipids on the skin surface.
It has several health benefits in nutritional, medicinal and pharmaceutical fields: according to promising results from recent studies, squalene is considered an important substance in practical and clinical uses with a huge potential in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. It acts as antioxidant, anticancer, skin care agent, drug delivery agent, detoxifier, anti-infection agent.

Due to its different properties, squalene demand is fast growing, and by 2028 it is estimate at 6.3% each year, with Europe as the main squalene consumer followed by Asia and North America.

Traditional extraction from sharks’ liver is getting more and more unsustainable, as around 3000 animals are required to produce 1 ton of squalene and this is endangering some species of extinction. Luckily, since last decade squalene is also extracted from vegetables like olive oil, walnut, rice bran, cashews and amaranth oil.
Among them, a pseudograin Amaranthus sp., more recently introduced in Europe, is known to be the plant with mostly the highest concentration of squalene in vegetal world. The oil content in Amaranthus seed is only about 4–8%, but oil from amaranth seeds contains 6–8% of squalene (ca. 0.4% of the total seed mass).
Indena is producing squalene from the Amaranthus seeds to be used as vaccine coadjuvant.