It is carried out on the dry material at 8% Celsius (48°F) in an inert atmosphere (to prevent oxidation). The materials potentiated are completely undamaged, which is a great improvement over other processes. No chemicals are used, the cool, dry conditions under an inert atmosphere prevents product changes or deterioration.

Bee Pollen
has low digestibility because the goodness in the cytoplasm is sealed off by an indigestible lignocellulosic cell wall. Humans have neither cellulase nor lignase digestive enzymes, so we cannot eat our way through the cell wall to release the good materials that the pollen undoubtedly contains.

The Potentiation Breakthrough

The approach taken by the research team lead by Dr Kelly Duncan was to open the cells by explosive disruption. The cells are placed into a specially constructed machine, then an inert gas such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide is pumped in until a specified pressure is reached. The cells are left, so that the cytoplasm reaches equilibrium and then the vessel is discharged explosively in a small fraction of a second. This change in pressure drop is almost instantaneous and causes the cells to expand and the cell walls to open and they rupture or become holed. This allows the essential nutrients to spill out and/or allows our digestive enzymes to enter the cells and use the nutrients within the cells. We still are unable to digest the cell wall but this allows us to get to the important nutrients protected by the cell wall. The process of explosive homogenisation has been called 'potentiation' and is covered by patent applications.      "Cells before Potentiation"

"The Double cell wall" "Potentiated Cell" "Cells after Potentiation"

A test has been developed for this technology (the Thionin test)
click here to find out more about
TESTING THE BIOAVAILABILITY OF PLANT CELLULAR MATERIALS