Bioavailable and Functional Zinc Supplement
Plant-based zinc-peptide complex designed for better absorption, safety, and clinical impact.
Starting this week, we will be posting weekly updates on this project and its progress. Each update will highlight what has changed in the project sections, the steps we have taken, and what comes next, so you can follow the work in real time. Today we have refreshed several parts of the project to reflect its current status. We are committed to keeping this weekly update cycle, so that our donors and partners always have a clear and confident view of how the project is moving forward.
Problem
Zinc deficiency remains one of the most persistent micronutrient problems worldwide. It weakens immunity, slows growth, impairs cognition, and worsens recovery from illness, especially in children, the elderly, oncology patients, and people with chronic diseases. Yet current supplements, mainly inorganic salts such as zinc sulfate or standard organic complexes like zinc gluconate, are often poorly absorbed, easily blocked by dietary inhibitors such as phytates, and frequently cause nausea or other gastrointestinal discomfort. These drawbacks reduce compliance, limit clinical benefit, and leave a major gap in safe, effective, and culturally acceptable solutions.
Solution
This project creates a new class of zinc supplements by binding zinc to carefully selected peptides generated from chickpea protein hydrolysates. Using controlled enzymatic hydrolysis, we release zinc-binding peptide sequences that can form stable, soluble complexes with zinc, protecting it from dietary inhibitors and improving intestinal uptake. The result is a plant-derived, food-compatible formulation that is designed to be more bioavailable, better tolerated, and suitable for both public health programs and clinical use, including oncology supportive care. The program couples rigorous lab validation with scalable manufacturing and FDA/EFSA-aligned regulatory planning to deliver a supplement that is ready for real-world deployment.
Zinc touches almost every aspect of human health: immune defense, growth, wound healing, fertility, and protection against oxidative stress. When zinc is low, infections last longer, children fail to thrive, and recovery from surgery, chemotherapy, or chronic illness is slower and more complicated. Today, millions of people who most need reliable zinc support either cannot absorb it well or stop taking supplements because of side effects. At the same time, there is strong demand for clean-label, plant-based solutions that fit modern nutrition and sustainability standards.
A chickpea-based zinc–peptide supplement directly addresses these needs. It has the potential to strengthen immune resilience in children and older adults, support better tolerance and recovery in oncology patients, and offer a practical tool for maternal–child health and other public health programs, without relying on animal-derived ingredients or harsh formulations.
The project follows a stepwise scientific and translational pathway. Chickpea proteins are first extracted under food-grade conditions and then broken down by selected enzymes into peptide-rich hydrolysates. Among these peptides, we identify those with strong zinc-binding capacity and favorable size and structure. Zinc is then added under optimized conditions to form stable peptide–zinc complexes that remain soluble and protected across a range of pH values that mimic the digestive tract.
These complexes are characterized using advanced analytical methods to confirm their composition, stability, and binding strength. In vitro digestion models and Caco-2 intestinal cell assays are used to demonstrate improved absorption compared with standard zinc salts. In parallel, we evaluate antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and potential anticancer-supportive activities, building on known bioactivities of chickpea peptides. The most promising complexes are then translated into practical supplement prototypes such as capsules or powders, with parallel work on safety, ADME/Tox, and regulatory readiness.
The program focuses on three tightly connected goals:
The scope spans the full pipeline from enzymatic hydrolysis and molecular characterization through bioavailability and bioactivity studies, pilot-scale production, and regulatory and intellectual property mapping in priority markets such as the United States and Central Asia
• A rigorously characterized, plant-based zinc–peptide formulation that demonstrates clearly improved zinc uptake in validated in vitro models compared with standard zinc sulfate.
• Evidence that the complexes retain or enhance beneficial bioactivities of chickpea peptides, including antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects relevant to infection resistance, recovery, and oncology supportive care.
• Pilot-scale manufacturing protocols and quality-control standards that can be adopted by nutraceutical and functional food producers.
• Prototype supplement formats (for example, capsules or powders) suitable for clinical nutrition, retail markets, and integration into fortified foods.
• A regulatory and IP roadmap covering GRAS-related considerations, health-claim substantiation, labeling, and freedom-to-operate assessment, enabling rapid progression to market and to clinical pilots.
Technical Backbone
The technical backbone combines modern food science, analytical chemistry, and translational nutrition:
• Enzymatic hydrolysis of chickpea proteins using food-grade enzymes to generate a library of zinc-binding peptides.
• Optimization of complexation conditions (pH, temperature, peptide-to-zinc ratio, reaction time) to maximize chelation efficiency and stability.
• Comprehensive physicochemical characterization using techniques such as FTIR, CD spectroscopy, DLS, ITC, HPLC/LC-MS, and ICP-MS to define structure, binding stoichiometry, particle size, and stability under gastrointestinal conditions.
• Bioavailability assessment through in vitro digestion models and Caco-2 cell transport assays, including tests in the presence of inhibitors like phytates and oxalates.
• Functional bioactivity testing in antioxidant, immunological, and oncology-relevant cell and animal models, along with ADME/Tox profiling to support safety and dose translation.
• Formulation and stability studies aligned with GMP and international food safety standards to ensure that the final product is robust, reproducible, and ready for scale-up.
The scientific rationale, study design, and work packages for the project have been fully developed, drawing on a comprehensive literature base on peptide–zinc complexes and chickpea-derived bioactive peptides. Partner institutions with expertise in protein chemistry, analytical methods, bioavailability models, and functional food development are identified and ready to implement the work plan.
The next step is to secure funding to launch laboratory activities, including optimization of chickpea protein hydrolysis, initial zinc–peptide complexation trials, and early bioavailability and bioactivity screening. Once funded, the project is structured to progress through a defined series of milestones toward validated prototypes and regulatory-ready data packages.
We invite donors, research partners, and industry collaborators who share a commitment to safer, more effective, and sustainable nutrition. Support for this project will accelerate the development of a plant-based zinc supplement that can strengthen immune defenses, improve recovery, and reduce the burden of zinc deficiency in both everyday and clinical settings.
By joining this initiative, partners help build a bridge from advanced peptide science to real-world impact: from chickpea fields to clinics, schools, and households where better zinc support can change health trajectories for children, oncology patients, and other vulnerable groups.
