Palm fruits are known as the source of palm oil - an edible vegetable oil used for making products ranging from packaged food to personal care items like shampoo.
Inside palm fruits are also functional ingredients such as plant squalene and tocotrienols / tocopherol, which are forms of vitamin E.
Some companies, such as iHerb and Market America, are starting to use these palm phytonutrients into their products for aging support, according to palm phynutrients supplier PhytoGaia.
Multi-level marketing company Market America, for instance, is selling Choice NADPLUS Mango Jelly with D-Ribose, Palm Tocotrienol Rich Fraction (STGaia) and Nicotinamide under its Isotonix brand sold in Malaysia.
The product contains STGaia - a complex combining tocotrienols and squalene extracted from palm fruits, and is marketed to support vitality, energy levels, and overall health from the cellular level with STGaia’s antioxidative properties.
Another example using STGaia is Singapore brand MyLustre’s Bodigard VitaStixc Jelly, a product which also makes claims for anti-aging, skin health and being antioxidant rich.
iHerb, on the other hand, has applied TocoGaia -another tocotrienols and tocopherol complex supplied by PhytoGaia - into its in-house brand California Gold Nutrition’s Tocotrienol Complex with Vitamin E product. The product is marketed for supporting healthy immune response and cardiovascular function.
Healthy Aging Ingredient of the Year
Apart from increasing traction from nutraceutical brands, STGaia was also crowned winner of Ingredient of the Year Healthy Aging at the NutraIngredients-Asia Awards 2025.
The judges commented that the they were impressed with PhytoGaia’s deep commitment to research that has since revealed strong healthy ageing properties of the ingredient, alongside evidence of strong commercial growth in a crowded marketplace.
Speaking to NutraIngredients after the win, Bryan See, vice president at PhytoGaia, said that another advantage of the complex was that it was extracted without the use of chemical solvents, which made it a “cleaner” option.
The complex emerged as the winner against two other finalists - CurQfen from Akay Bioactives and Theracurmin from Theravalues.
The inspiration
The idea of using tocotrienols and squalene for healthy aging partly came from the understanding that squalene levels reduces with age.
“Based on literature, the amount of squalene in our body drops when we age, which means that this is a sign of aging,” said See.
Tocotrienols supplementation, on the other hand, has been reported to reduce oxidative stress and could even lead to a significant increase in telomerase activity among seniors, based on a six-month clinical trial.
“STGaia brings together two powerful compounds - plant squalene and tocotrienols - and they work synergistically in cellular protection and oral beauty, especially for skin and hair growth,” said See.
More studies
PhytoGaia has embarked on two studies to uncover STGaia’s potential benefits in preserving telomere length, NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) activities, and skin hydration.
Both studies are conducted with Monash University Malaysia.
One of the studies, which has an intervention period of six months, will assess the effects of STGaia in low dose, high dose, and the placebo, on telomere length and telomerase activity.
These two parameters were chosen as they are well-established biomarkers of biological aging.
The low dose group will be supplemented with 56mg of mixed-tocotrienols and 100mg plant squalene, while the high dose group will take in 112mg mixed tocotrienols and 200mg of plant squalene.
The second study will assess STGaia’s effects on dry skin, including eczema, in a 70-day trial.
