There is growing interest in the benefits of botanicals. In the US, for example, retail sales of herbal supplements rose 5% in 2024 to hit a record $13.23 billion.¹ With 66% of consumers now believing they are safer than pharmaceuticals, sales are tipped to hit $17 billion by 2028.²
However, manufacturers must be careful to retain shoppers’ trust. Studies show there are already high levels of adulterated, mislabelled and even fraudulent botanicals on the market.³⁴⁵⁶
The issue is not likely to go away, particularly as global supply chains face mounting cost pressures. A panel at GA Naples 2025 in September, meanwhile, agreed that climate change is also contributing to problems with plant availability, adulteration, quality and authenticity.⁷
For supplement brands, it is therefore more important than ever to demonstrate to consumers that your botanical ingredients are authentic, traceable and high-quality.
Nektium’s holistic approach
Based in Gran Canaria in Spain, Nektium is a global leader in premium branded botanical extracts that deliver proven benefits for cognitive health, sleep, stress reduction, physical and mental performance, weight management and more.
We only produce standardised extracts and have rigorous measures in place to guarantee quality and authenticity in every botanical we supply – from branded ingredients like Zynamite®, Vanizem® and Rhodiolife® through to extracts such as elderberry, echinacea and devil’s claw.
Our quality vision overarches the whole value chain, including careful sourcing, raw material control and processing at our GMP-compliant manufacturing facilities.
We also combine warehousing, quality testing and advanced technology manufacturing facilities at the same site in Spain, ensuring full transparency, consistency and control all the way from raw materials to shipping of the final botanicals.
Nektium’s quality programme is built to deliver botanical ingredients standardised to relevant bioactives, with consistent quality from batch to batch. This ensures brand owners and consumers get the effective products they expect, every time.
Trusted suppliers
A fully controlled and transparent value chain is at the core of the Nektium promise. We only work with a handful of select suppliers who meet the highest quality and sustainability standards, building long-term partnerships.
Transparency, supply reliability and consistency are vital. We have visibility over our growers, including on-site visits, and have put cultivation programmes in place to ensure secure, sustainable and socially responsible long-term supplies.
Supply reliability
Our integrated supply chain also helps us maintain the supplies our customers expect all year round.
We foster stable, long-term partnerships with our carefully selected growers, which minimises supply risk and promotes high quality standards. In addition, we work with our partners and distributors to assess supply demands annually. This allows us to predict the amounts we will require for the year ahead and avoid stock shortages.
We are passionate about customer satisfaction and work hard to meet delivery deadlines, offering flexibility when needed.
Rigorous testing and reporting
Once harvested, the plant materials are transported to our warehousing facilities in Spain ready for inspection.
Even though we have full confidence in our suppliers, we still carry out extensive in-house authenticity and quality testing to ensure standards are never allowed to slip.
Our in-house laboratory is staffed with highly skilled and PhD-qualified analytical chemists, who have implemented rigorous quality assurance procedures and integrated quality control systems.
We conduct plant identity procedures including macroscopic, sensorial and Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography profiles combined with HPTLC and DNA barcode analysis.
Thanks to these procedures, we can ensure we will identify any potential adulterations or quality issues before they reach our production lines.
We are also happy to share and explain our analysis reports with customers, giving them complete confidence that their products meet the highest quality and safety standards.
In-house manufacturing
At our state-of-the-art in-house manufacturing site in Spain, we have EU-GMP certification for the manufacture of nutraceutical ingredients, have obtained FSSC 22000 Food Safety System Certification, and are FDA-registered. We also hold certification as an organic operator.
We manufacture bioactive ingredients that mirror their natural phytochemical profile, using exclusively safe and green extraction methods. When it comes to concentration and purification, we minimise thermal stress and the use of ethanol, employing advanced technologies to concentrate and separate the bioactive compounds in each extract.
Innovation in processing
We are equipped with a broad range of processing technologies that allow us to optimise and adapt our ingredients to manufacturers’ needs, such as pasteurisation, low-temperature spray-drying, micro-encapsulation and granulation.
Our new Smartek by Nektium™ suite of delivery technologies, meanwhile, has been developed to get even more from our botanicals.
Bringing the best of nature together with cutting-edge science, we apply proprietary food-grade process technologies to enhance botanical delivery, enabling ease of use in application, efficacy and stability of bioactive compounds.
Making quality and efficacy your USP
At a time when adulteration threatens to shake consumer confidence, working with a trusted supplier that offers full transparency in the supply chain can help your products stand out from the crowd.
Nektium’s botanicals allow you to make quality and authenticity a key selling point, using storytelling to show how your ingredients are sourced and tested to provide proven results.
We’re known across the industry for always delivering safe, transparent, science-backed ingredient solutions that ensure peace of mind for manufacturers. Our technological versatility and phytochemical capabilities allow us to extract and standardise bioactives from any part of the plant to deliver the desired health promise.
Whether you’re buying a generic botanical or a branded ingredient, everything we produce is subject to the highest industry standards. No corners are cut, and no compromises are made. You demand the best, and so do we.
References
¹ https://www.herbalgram.org/news/press-releases/2025/us-sales-herbal-supplements-2024-increase/
² https://store.newhope.com/products/herbs-and-botanicals-report-2025
³ Orhan, N. et al. “Estimating the extent of adulteration of the popular herbs black cohosh, echinacea, elderberry, ginkgo, and turmeric – its challenges and limitations.” Natural Product Reports, Volume 41, Issue 10, 2024, pp. 1604–1621.
⁴ Brouns, A. et al. “Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata): Quality of Food Supplements Versus Registered Herbal Medicinal Products.” Planta Med, 2025; 91(09): 532–540. DOI: 10.1055/a-2591-3765.
⁵ https://www.alkemist.com/herbs-fungi-were-watching-for-2025/
⁶ Orhan, N. et al. “Ginseng Adulteration Across Global Markets and Evaluation of Commercial Product Authenticity.” Natural Product Communications (2025).
⁷ https://ga-online.org/news/ga-naples-2025-viewback-and-thanks/
