Investing in evidence: how Artemis International prioritizes its botanical research

Berry and botanical ingredient supplier Artemis International is Nutritional Outlook's 2025 Best of the Industry, Industry Supplier.

In this interview, Melanie Bush, vice president of science and research at Artemis International, highlights the research milestones of the company, especially the substantiation of their elderberry extract, Eldercraft. Bush also explains the strategy for deciding which research initiatives to prioritize and pursue, collaborating with customers, universities, and others to identify areas of most need and value.

Transcript

Sebastian Krawiec: I wonder if you can talk about some research that you're particularly proud of, that were big milestones for Artemis.

Melanie Bush: In particular, what comes to mind is the substantiation of our ElderCraft European black elderberry extract. Because we have numerous studies that span preliminary, in vitro, types of studies that explore mechanisms of action all the way up to several large scale human clinical trials, including one that is on the way to be published, we're very excited about that. But we have really, with different studies, been able to demonstrate the health benefits of our ElderCraft ingredient in three different categories that are all interrelated, of both immune support and antiviral mechanisms directly within that immune umbrella, as well as digestive health, so as prebiotic activity with a human clinical trial on ElderCraft, which makes sense, because the healthier the gut, the healthier the immune system. So it really helps to solidify the substantiation for this particular extract in these very relevant health outcomes that are baseline, If you want to have other benefits and other health categories, having that healthy immune system and gut really are kind of central to it all. So those are some particular studies that we really feel have been cutting edge in the industry and have really advanced the consumer awareness of elderberry. And we'll continue to do that sort of rigor with our studies with several other ingredients as well.