Orders are dispatched from our premises within 24 hours of being received, as soon as payment is confirmed, except on a Friday, when orders are dispatched the following Monday. Orders within the UK should reach the relevant destination within 2 to 5 working days. For orders within Europe, please allow 4-5 working days. For all other international destinations, please allow 7 working days for delivery. Please ensure that you provide a valid street address where somebody will be available to receive the parcel between 9am and 5pm, as the courier service cannot provide specific delivery times. If you are unlikely to be at home during those hours, please provide an alternative address. The courier will leave a card with their details, in the event that you are not home. They will re-attempt delivery twice, or you will have the chance to collect your parcel from your local depot. Should these attempts to deliver still fail, then the parcel will be returned to Igennus. We regret that we will have to charge the normal postage fee if we have to re-send your parcel.

Lost or Damaged Shipment

Please contact us on 0845 1300 424 (Mon – Fri: 9:00am – 5:30pm). Please note that we cannot refund or replace lost parcels until 14 working days has elapsed since the order was despatched.

Returns and Exchanges

When you shop with us, we want you to be completely satisfied. If you are not happy with your purchase you can return it to us for a full refund, provided you inform us within 7 working days of receiving the goods. The cost of returning the goods to us is your responsibility.

If you receive your order and find that it has been damaged, is defective in any way or is not the item which you ordered, we will refund or exchange the item, including the cost of delivery, and the cost of returning the goods to us.

Please do not return an item without informing us and please ensure that all returned goods are clearly marked with your name and order details. Please return products in a saleable condition, unsoiled and with no damage to the container, lid, seal or label.

Please note that we do not issue refunds if the product has been opened. This does not affect your statutory rights.

As part of our commitment to providing a high level of service to all of our customers, we welcome your views on your experience with the company and products. If for any reason you would like to register a complaint with us, please write in to us.

How to get in touch

E-mail: send an e-mail to info@igennus.com

By post: please write in to Igennus, 9 Chesterton Mill, French’s Road, Cambridge, CB4 3NP

Telephone: +44 (0)845 1300 424 (lines open 9:00 am to 5:30 pm Mon-Fri)

Please note that returns can take between 7-10 business days to receive and process, although we will do our best to minimise any delay.

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully. We collect information about you for two reasons: firstly, to process your order and secondly, to provide you with the best possible service. We will give you the chance to refuse any marketing communication from us.

We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent. As far as possible, we will try to hold information about you which is accurate and up to date. In order to ensure this we will, from time to time, need to contact you to update our records. You can check the information that we hold about you by emailing us. Please inform us if you notice any incorrect data held about you and we will amend and correct it promptly. We do not pass customer information to third parties.

Security

Your credit card transactions are secure. All on-line orders are encrypted and sent through a secure server. Confidential information such as your credit card number will be used only to fulfill your order. To protect your privacy, we will ask you to enter your credit card number, expiration date & card verification code (3 digit number on the back of your card) each time you place an order with us. This way, even if someone else accesses the account information stored on your computer, they won’t be able to use your credit card.

Q. If echium oil contains short-chain fatty acids that need to be converted to EPA and DHA, but algae oil contains these pre-formed, then surely algae oil is superior to echium oil?

A. Whilst this would seem to be the case, this is not necessarily true. We explain here…

Firstly, what is algae oil? Fish, just like humans, are unable to manufacture their own omega-3 fatty acids and have to consume them through the diet.  The predominant source of long-chain omega-3 for fish is algae.  This has led to the development of omega-3 supplements that are therefore suitable for both vegetarians and vegans, sourcing them directly from algae and bypassing the fish.  These supplements are in triglyceride form, however, and, unlike omega-3 derived from fish oils, tend to be predominantly or entirely DHA.

Relying entirely on algae oil as a source of long-chain omega-3 may not be ideal.  Triglyceride is a form of fat, and its structure  is the same as the  majority of dietary fat that is consumed.  A triglyceride molecule is simply 3 fatty acids joined by a glycerol backbone.  Different fatty acids attach to the glycerol backbone at sites termed sn-1, sn-2 and sn-3, and can be a mixture of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids.  The site of attachment is important to the overall bioavailability of any fatty acid.

So what does this mean?

In algae oil supplements, DHA is predominantly localised at the sn-2 position of the triglyceride (TAG), whereas attachment of any EPA at each site is more random (not all algae oils contain EPA).  The position of different fatty acids within triglycerides is significant because triglycerides are too big to be absorbed and have to be modified first.  Enzymes cut the fatty acids located at the sn-1 and sn-3 sites, leaving the fatty acid at the sn-2 site still attached to the glycerol molecules, which is now termed a monoglycerol.  Monoglycerols can now move freely into the cells of the gut wall, where they are reformed again as triglycerides.  However, the fatty acids that are used to reform the triglyceride are not the original fatty acids in the supplement.   Fatty acids within the cell will be from a variety of different dietary sources and will be a mix of saturated fat, mono, and polyunsaturated fat.

Supplementing with pure or predominantly DHA may therefore lead to exclusive accumulation of this omega-3 fatty acid; high-DHA supplements may therefore have consequences. For example, while DHA is important in the structure of neuronal membranes and EPA plays little or no structural role in the brain, it is essential for the regulation of brain function via its eicosanoid derivatives, such as prostaglandins, leukotrienes and thromboxanes.

Also, DHA levels tend to plateau, so increasing DHA intake may be fruitless, as these levels remain relatively stable.  In contrast, EPA has a constant turnover, the body’s needs for which can increase  in certain conditions, such as where there is inflammation.

Because of the shortfall in omega-3 intake and concerns regarding sustainability of many fish species, there has been great scientific interest in finding sustainable sources of plant-sourced omega-3 oils that are capable of significantly raising EPA and DHA levels.

In November 2009 the European Commission acknowledged that refined echium oil complies with the Novel Food Legislation, granting it Novel Food status and therefore suitable for human consumption.  Before this date, echium oil simply wasn’t available.  Echium oil is a unique combination of essential fatty acids and, unlike other oils, particularly rich in ALA, SDA and GLA.  In fact, echium oil is considered to be the best available combination of omega-3,-6 and -9!

Specification:

Per 500mg capsule

• 63 mg stearidonic acid (omega-3 fatty acid)
• 150 mg other omega-3 fatty acids
• 51 mg gamma linolenic acid (omega-6 fatty acid)
• 93 mg other omega-6 fatty acids
• 86 mg oleic acid (omega-9 fatty acid)
• 214mg vegetarian capsule shell from modified starch

Echiomega is encapsulated to protect the oil from oxidation.  This not only increases the shelf life of the product but also means there is no need, unlike with other oils, for Echiomega to be stored in the fridge.

Taking 4g or 8 capsules of Echiomega meets the upper limit for SDA consumption of 500mg per day and offers significant health benefits over that of other oils such as flaxseed or hemp oils.

Omega-6 fats

The omega-6 family of fats are similar to the omega-3s, as these also need to be consumed in the diet.  Indeed, for good health, we need a balance of omega-6 and omega-3.  Crucially, however, the omega-6 family can throw the omega-3 family out of balance because they compete with the omega-3s for enzymes needed to convert short-chain fatty acids to long-chain fatty acids.  The typical Western diet contains high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids (usually from vegetable oils such as corn, soybean, sunflower and safflower), so this family of fats ‘hogs’ the enzymes needed for long-chain omega-3 synthesis, reducing the levels of conversion even more!

The omega-6 family can give rise to inflammatory products derived from arachidonic acid (AA) or anti-inflammatory products from dihomo gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA) and this is generally dependent on the amount of omega-3 in the diet. This is because delta-5 desaturase is an enzyme that favours the conversion of the omega-3 family to produce EPA, and so increasing vegetarian omega-3 intake can shift the omega-6 pathway to convert to anti-inflammatory products, because there is little enzyme left to take it down the inflammatory pathway. Therefore the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should be in the range of 4:1 to 1:1 to ensure a good balance of inflammatory to anti-inflammatory products. However, because the typical diet is so low in omega-3 and high in omega-6, the actual ratio is estimated to be anywhere between 12:1 to 50:1 in some countries.

It is important, therefore, for vegetarians and vegans to make sure that they do not consume too much omega-6 and to choose oils rich in omega-3.

The omega-3 solution for vegans & vegetarians

Generally, flaxseed has been the favourite source of vegetarian omega-3 for vegetarians and vegans as it contains around 58% ALA, which has until recently been the highest known plant form of ALA. However, if the body is unable to convert ALA to SDA, which is the first fatty acid in the pathway to EPA and DHA, then an oil with a high content of ALA will not necessarily ensure a good supply of EPA and DHA. This has been a long known problem, but one for which there is now an effective solution. The recent approval of echium seed oil as a novel food ingredient is particularly significant for vegans and vegetarians because, unlike flaxseed oil, echium oil (derived from the seeds of the plant Echium plantagineum) provides a rich source of vegetarian omega-3 SDA, which is the fatty acid derived from ALA and the precursor to EPA. Simply put, this fatty acid has bypassed the rate-limiting conversion step in the synthesis of ALA to EPA and then on to DHA. In fact, SDA has been shown to be around 5 times more effective than ALA in producing EPA.

Furthermore, SDA in combination with gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an anti-inflammatory omega-6 present in echium but not found in flaxseed oil, raises red blood cell EPA levels more efficiently than SDA alone, making echium seed oil a unique source of vegetarian omega-3.

	Oleic acid	LA	GLA	Total omega-6	ALA	SDA	Total omega-3	Ratio omega-6/omega-3
Hempseed oil	12	57	3	60	19	1	20	3:1
Flaxseed oil	19	14	0	14	58	0	58	1:4
Echiomega	17	19	11	30	30	13	41	1:1.4
Canola oil	61	21	0	21	11	0	11	1.9:1
Olive oil	69	22	0	22	2	0	0	n/a
Walnut oil	18	63	0	63	11	0	11	5.7:1
Corn oil	33	52	0	52	1	0	1	52:1

Fatty acid composition of different plant oils.

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The parent omega-3

One particular vegetarian omega-3 (called a ‘short-chain’ fatty acid and known as alpha-linolenic acid or ‘ALA’) is found in plants and plant oils such as flaxseed, echium, hemp, and canola – although the amounts of ALA  varies between these oils.  Flaxseed oil is generally well known for its high content, comprising around 58% ALA and, until recently, it was an ideal source of omega-3 for non fish-eaters.  ALA can be considered the ‘parent’ fatty acid, as this is the only true essential fatty acid; once we consume this, we have the chemical machinery to modify it to the more important ‘long-chain’ omega-3s.

Long-chain omega-3s

The most important omega-3s are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), found in fish and fish oils.  These are also known as ‘long-chain’ fatty acids.  As with  plant oils, different fish have different amounts, and oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, anchovies and salmon tend to have the highest concentrations because they store these fats in their flesh.

Due to the shortfall in omega-3 intake and concerns regarding sustainability of many fish species, however, there has been great scientific interest in finding sustainable sources of plant-sourced omega-3 oils that have similar benefits to fish oil. Consequently a new and unique source of omega-3 was discovered in echium seed oil, namely stearidonic acid (SDA), which has similar properties to EPA and DHA found in fish oil.

EPA and DHA are considered to be more important than ALA because they are converted by the body to a family of hormone-like substances called eicosanoids that help to regulate the cardiovascular system, the immune system and the body’s response to inflammation.  Indeed, low intake or low levels in the body of EPA and DHA can have quite profound effects on our health.

Since fish is not a viable source of omega-3 for vegetarians and vegans, how do we get good supplies of EPA and DHA when these are found in sufficient quantities in plant sources?  If we think of the omega-3 as a family of fatty acids and we consume vegetarian omega-3 oils that contain the ‘parent’ fatty acid ALA, then the body can modify this fatty acid through a series of enzyme mediated steps, resulting in the formation of the omega-3 relative EPA, which is further modified to make DHA. (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  The omega-6 and omega-3 pathways.

The effects of stress on the body, or an inadequate diet, however, can cause many people to have problems making the first conversion in this pathway.  The enzyme delta-6 desaturase is called a ‘rate -limiting’ enzyme, as it struggles to convert ALA to SDA, the next fatty acid in the pathway.  As the process gets stuck at this point, the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is consistently low in most people; less than 8% of ALA is metabolised to EPA and only between 0.02% and 4% is metabolised to DHA.  This may be overcome relatively easily by consuming ‘pre-formed’ EPA and DHA in the form of fish or fish oils.  This is not a viable option for vegetarians and vegans, however, who are more likely to be deficient in omega-3s when compared with fish-eaters. Echium seed oil solves the problem for vegans and vegetarians, by providing pre-formed SDA.

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