Several different versions of policosanol are available on the market, with some derived from rice bran or beeswax and others from sugar cane wax. Are all of these products equivalent? There has been a multitude of studies investigating the beneficial effects of policosanol. The majority of these studies, conducted in Cuba, used the patented Cuban policosanol sourced from sugar cane wax. As a result, this highly researched form of policosanol is considered the gold standard of policosanol products. This Cuban material is a blend of natural concentrated fatty alcohols, the predominant one being octacosanol, which makes up roughly 60 % of the mixture. The fatty alcohol compositions of the beeswax and rice bran derived policosanol products fail to measure up to the Cuban material. In fact, most of these products have completely different fatty alcohol profiles than the Cuban version, with most of the fatty alcohols falling outside of the Cuban material specification ranges.
Pure Encapsulations policosanol is LESSTANOL™ brand policosanol from Garuda International, Inc. It is derived from sugar cane wax and contains a minimum of 95% policosanols, 60% of which is octacosanol. Furthermore, all of the fatty alcohols fall within the Cuban specification ranges with the exception of one. The utilization of a slightly different extraction technique leaves the heptacosanol content in the Garuda policosanol somewhat lower. Additionally, the processing and purification of the raw sugar cane wax may vary slightly from that of the Cuban product.
A recent, unpublished pilot study was conducted at the University of California, San Diego. Subjects were given 10 mg of LESSTANOL™ twice a day for sixty days. Results indicated that LESSTANOL™ helped support healthy lipid metabolism. Based on the encouraging results of this pilot study, two larger studies will be conducted by early next year. Below is a table comparing the content of Garuda LESSTANOL™ brand policosanol used in Pure Encapsulations Policosanol 10 mg and Policosanol 20mg and the patented Cuban policosanol.
| Fatty Alcohol | Garuda Specifications | Cuban Patent Ranges |
| 1-Tetracosanol | 0 - 10% | 0.5 - 1.0% |
| 1-Hexacosanol | 2 - 15% | 5.5 - 8.5% |
| 1-Heptacosanol | 0 - 0.5% | 2 - 3.5% |
| 1-Octacosanol | 55 - 70% | 60 - 70% |
| 1-Triacontanol | 5 - 20% | 10 - 15% |
Pure Encapsulations is proud to offer sugar cane wax derived LESSTANOL™ policosanol at an extremely cost-competitive price.
