About Us

Oxiprovin is a new addition to the SA Natural Products family. The active ingredient is manufactured by Brenn-O-Kem which is based in the heart of the Cape winelands.

Established in 1988, SA Natural Products is a national company with representation in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Johannesburg, and Pretoria in South Africa.

From humble beginnings as a family business nestled in the heart of The Valley of a Thousand Hills in rural KwaZulu-Natal, SA Natural Products has grown into a leading multi-channel pharma business that market a full spectrum of Complementary Medicines, including health and well-being products inspired by nature. It has forged lasting relationships with clients and continues to grow from strength to strength.

SA Natural Products has three core focus areas:

Firstly, it imports, distributes, and produces top-class natural health products. These include the Swiss made A.Vogel herbal, homeopathic, food and body care product ranges, Bio-Strath herbal yeast supplement, Anima-Strath and Equi-Strath, THRESHHold RealMSM tablets and PlusGel for joint health, and Thursday Plantation Tea Tree products.

Secondly, it runs the Living Naturally Academy for healthcare professionals throughout Southern Africa.

Thirdly, it promotes the Living Naturally lifestyle in Southern Africa.

SA Natural Products proudly welcomed Oxiprovin to its stable in 2023.

The Oxiprovin heritage

Chris Du Toit, the chairman of Brenn-O-Kem, established the company on the principles of environmental sustainability in 1968. It is the first company of its kind to recycle and use waste from the wine industry to produce cream of tartar and tartaric acid.

Today, Brenn-O-Kem specialises in transforming winery waste, such as grape skins, seeds, and wine lees, into value-added natural products that is used in the wine industry, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets.

Chris always believed that there was something more hidden away in the waste and that the grape seeds had untapped health benefits.

Whilst managing health issues of his own, Chris started learning about the holistic healing power of antioxidants. His research led him to asking three questions:

Was it possible to recycle the grape seeds from the waste that the wine industry produced?
Was it possible to extract the medicine from these grape seeds in a way that didn’t compromise the integrity?
How could this be used to make a pure, potent, all-natural antioxidant with a polyphenol content that could benefit everyone, everywhere?

Chris lost his battle to cancer in 2001. His sons Kobus and Wynand continued to pursue his dreams and through rigorous testing and multiple extraction processes, Oxiprovin was born in 2003.

SA Natural Products acquired and relaunched Oxiprovin in 2023.

How is Oxiprovin made?

Oxiprovin’s active ingredient is grape seed extract. The manufacturing process has been engineered using both traditional methods and new innovations to deliver quality.

How oxiprovin is made 01

How oxiprovin is made 02

The Oxiprovin manufacturing process explained

Grape seeds, skins and pomace from white grapes are collected from South African wine farms early in the harvesting season. This is between January to March which is when the antioxidant count is at its highest. The fresh grape seeds are separated from the pomace.
The grape seeds are naturally sundried to separate the flesh and skin from the seeds. It is further prepared using an atmospheric air dryer circulating fresh air as opposed to rapid industrial drying at harsh temperatures. This will cook the seeds and damage the integrity of the antioxidants. Sun drying is more gradual and more natural. This process gently removes skin and fruit pulp and reduces the risk of microbial contamination.
These seeds are pressed to produce grape seed oil used for cooking, massage and carrier oils. First extracting the oil also helps to further dry out the seeds. The remaining seed material undergoes another gentle drying process before being milled into a powder.
The antioxidants are extracted by a traditional maceration method using medicinal alcohol. This is done in much the same way that herbal tinctures are made. In this instance, the grape seed powder is added instead of the herbs.
Alcohol is the preferred solvent because it extracts a variety of both water-soluble and insoluble (fat soluble) active ingredients from the grape seed powder. The grape seed powder stays in contact with the liquid for a maximum of two days, which has been determined through years of experience to provide the best polyphenol yield.
The liquid is passed through a centrifuge decanter to separate it from the solid seed material.
The liquid now contains specific antioxidants called polyphenols. The medicinal alcohol extracts them from the grape seed powder. The liquid turns deep red in colour as a result, although it comes from white grape seeds. It has the same antioxidants as those found in red grape seeds. This liquid is filtered through another filtering process in a multiple stage superfine cloth filtering process to ensure purity.
The pure red liquid gets gently vacuum dried at very low temperatures to extract all the liquid. This produces into a solid super concentrated residue called grape seed extract. It is reddish purplish in colour. This powder is collected and then further milled into a fine powder.
This fine powder is rich in antioxidants called polyphenols. The specific type of polyphenol is called oligomeric proanthocyanidins. This is the antioxidant. These are the specific type of antioxidants that are produced by grapes. The powder or grape seed extract which is rich in antioxidants is sent for quality control checking.

Quality you can trust

The active ingredient (grape seed extract) is triple
quality controlled to certify potency and purity

1

Quality Control
Check 1:

Potency

Oxiprovin grape seed extract is analysed for polyphenol (oligomeric proanthocyanidins) content.

2

Quality Control
Check 2:

Purity

Oxiprovin grape seed extract is tested for heavy metals and microbial growth such as bacteria, mould, and yeast. Moisture content is also measured and carefully controlled.

3

Quality Control
Check 3:

Efficacy

Oxiprovin contains a single source, pure, raw ingredient to support general health.

Oxiprovin is made from South African grape seeds.
Oxiprovin is naturally lower in tannins and heavy metals.
Oxiprovin has 140 mg grape seed extract per capsule.

The science behind Oxiprovin

Summary of publications

Recovery from injury:

Accelerated skeletal muscle recovery after in vivo polyphenol administration (Myburgh et al. 2012)
Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

Using Oxiprovin before and after muscle injury leads to faster and more effective regeneration of muscle fibres.

Anti-inflammatory:

Contusion injury with chronic in vivo polyphenol supplementation: leukocyte responses (Kruger et al. 2013)
Basic Sciences Journal

Using Oxiprovin before and after muscle injury results in a milder inflammatory response with an anti-inflammatory effect.

Immunomodulatory effect:

Anti-inflammatory cellular targets on neutrophils elucidated using novel cell migration model and confocal microscopy: a clinical supplementation study (Smith et al. 2018)
Journal of Inflammation

Oxiprovin provides an immunomodulatory effect in response to inflammation.

Anti-ageing:

Grape polyphenols corrects ageing-related detriments in neutrophil functionality via modulation of specific molecular targets (Petersen et al. 2018)
Inflammapharmacology Journal

Oxiprovin has anti-ageing effects on the immune system by improving the functioning of ageing related weakness in neutrophils, suggesting its ability to combat the effects of oxidative and inflammatory stress.

Neuroprotection:

Using a simulated blood-brain barrier to investigate potential modulators of HIV-1-associated neuro-inflammation processes in vitro (Africa and Smith et al. 2015)
Journal of Research in Biology

Oxiprovin dampens the inflammatory response resulting from HIV and reduces the inflammatory response across the blood-brain barrier.