Salba / Chia / Salvia hispanica L seeds

Someone from Canada asked me if I had heard of Salba seeds. I hadn't, so I googled it. Oh wow, that was a real can of worms. There was a lot of misinformation out there.

It is claimed to be a superfood, better than flax seed and it helps with diabetes and heart disease, here's an example of a claim from sourcesalba.com:

"Salba^® is the only ancient grain for which there are acute and long-term human nutritional studies. Salba^® has been extensively researched by Dr. Vladimir Vuksan Associate Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor and Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada, and Professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Nutritional Sciences, and Faculty of Medicine, Toronto. In randomized acute and long-term studies, the clinical results clearly document the great health potential of Salba^® as a functional food.

Salba^® is the only food that holds a medical patent (60-274.256). The patent pertains to Salba’s ability to manage the effects of blood sugar regulation and the dietary approaches to such management. It is focused on methods of improving associated metabolic abnormalities, specifically with Salba^®, and methods of use in these seeds in lowering blood pressure, blood glucose and post-prandial glycemia. Also it is associated with helping risk factors such as inflammatory factors (hi-C reactive protein), coagulation (fibrinogen, factor VIII, Von Willebrant and fibronolytic factors such as t-PA, iron status and endothelial function."

However, one person here comments:

"There is not one iota of research referenced on their website. It's just expert opinion and impressive claims without any scientific literature references to back them up. While Vladimir Vuksan may have a Ph.D. in nutrition and impressive credentials on his CV (http://www.utoronto.ca/nutrisci/faculty/Vuksan/), remember that his stated conclusions might be biased if he gets any money from Salba."

I also note that it is claimed that Vladimir Vuskan has filed patents on other things, such as "PGX":

"Dr. Vuksan has published over 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.  In 2003, he received the Government of Ontario award for excellence in nutrition and diabetes research and in 2008 received the Profession Award of the Year by the Canadian Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Toronto. Dr. Vuksan also holds a US patent for a viscous fiber blend (PGX™). Many of Dr. Vuksan’s research discoveries are well recognized as commercial products and used by the public as health applications."

The most informative article I found was this blog, which if printed totals 78 pages. I have not read it all, and I think people can draw different conclusions from it, but here's a few of my thoughts.

Firstly I searched for the so called patent in US and Canada, but all I could find was a Canadian Trade mark for Salba. As far as I gather, Salba is Chia, but they have simply taken the 25% white seeds and used them. This guy seems to have done more research than me, so I'll quote him:

"Ben said,

24 March 2009 at 9:40 pm

...

2) My second question is, can anyone find the patent(s) specific to Salba? I just spent several hours digging around for it/them. Sorry if this gets long but perhaps it’ll be useful to anyone wishing to dig further; here’s my results so far:

Several websites (including Salba’s) casually reference “60/274,256″. However, this isn’t a Patent Number. It’s actually a US Provisional Patent Application Number. Dr. Vladimir Vuksan acquired it on 9-Mar-2001 (I can’t find the actual document, sorry). Note that I said “provisional”… It’s actually just a placeholder, valid for one year, which essentially allows an inventor to “call dibs” on a concept without actually disclosing the details of it. It must be substantiated within a year by a real Patent Application.

Dr. Vuksan filed an international patent application with WIPO on 11-Mar-2002 (9th was a weekend), titled “Salvia Hispanica L. (Chia) in the management and treatment of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and associated risk factors,” resulting in International Application No. PCT/CA2002/000327 (Published 19-Sept as WO/2002/072119). He cited his US provisional application number, thus extending his claim back to 9-Mar-2001.

Interestingly, except for something unintelligible in Table 6, this application does not mention Salba, nor any specific chia varietal as far as I can tell. (To be fair, the Salba trademark wasn’t applied for in the US until 25-Jun-2002, but still, the patent doesn’t even mention the color of the seeds.) Based on that WIPO/PCT application, a number of country/region-specific patents applications were filed, including one in Canada (2440166), and one in the US (Application Number 20040185129).

However, neither of those applications were ever granted patents. The CA one languished, due at least partially to unpaid fees. I can’t find a status log of the US application, but I found what appears to be a replacement application, filed 17-Jun-2008: 20080305190. It appears the same except that 20 of the 40 claims have been canceled.

No patent has been granted for this recent, revised application either, but that’s not abnormal given that it was filed so recently.

So, here’s what I can tell so far: There is a patent *pending* for using chia seeds to manage cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and associated risk factors (it is very very broad, but mentions the oft-repeated blood glucose regulation among many other things). This patent application is not Salba-specific at all. I cannot find any other Salba-related patents, pending or granted!"

Secondly, from a lawyer, here's his complete post:

"Fred said,

26 March 2009 at 6:41 pm

"I am a lawyer well-versed in patent litigation, although I do not practice as a patent attorney. I have personally purchased both salba and chia. I would like to explain to Ben the reason why I believe the patent on Salba was made in the name of Salvia hispanica L. instead of the actual Salba grain. My opinion is that the Salba company wanted the patent to encompass all of Salvia hispanica L. instead of making it specific to Salba because if the patent extends to all Salvia hispanica L., the chia companies will not be able to make the same claim on chia, which is a type of Salvia hispanica L. Having the patent apply to all Salvia hispanica L. averts the opportunity for chia companies to duplicate salba’s research."

Thirdly, as I mentioned, Salba seems to be just the white seeds of Chia, so is there a big difference? I don't think so, if this is to be believed:

LOCATION	COLOR	PROTEIN	LIPIDS	PALMITIC	STEARIC	OLEIC	LINOLEIC	LINOLENIC
		%	%	% of lipids	% of lipids	% of lipids	% of lipids	% of lipids
1	WHITE	14.2	32.8	6.7	3.3	6.8	17.4	64.5
	BLACK	15.6	31.2	6.7	3.7	7.0	17.3	63.3
2	WHITE	12.4	29.3	6.7	3.3	6.8	17.9	63.7
	BLACK	12.3	30.2	6.3	3.3	6.7	18.0	63.5
3	WHITE	21.0	32.1	6.0	5.0	6.4	15.7	66.2
	BLACK	20.2	33.2	6.3	3.3	5.8	15.6	67.3
4	WHITE	18.4	35.7					64.4
	BLACK	19.6	35.2					64.9
average	WHITE	16.5	32.6					64.7
	BLACK	16.9	32.4					64.8

The table shows that greater differences in compostion are produced by location (due to climatic differences) than there are between white and black chia seed. Thus color is the only significant difference.
As an added note, if one plants black chia seed black chia seed will be produced, on the other hand if you plant white chia seed white chia seed will be produced.

* Ayerza and Coates, 2006. Unpublished. Analyses completed by an ISO 9000 certified laboratory.

The table I find very interesting, because I think that proves that the nutritional quality of a plant depends upon the soil it is grown in. I have read elsewhere that our fruit and veg these days contain less nutrients, because of modern farming methods. This is the first bit of research I have come across that shows me that the nutrients in a plant depend on soil, and perhaps temperature, and sunlight. Elsewhere, I have discovered that it can take many decades to restore soil to it's wholesome capacity. I would be more concerned about how the things I eat are grown, rather than whether they have a patent, trade mark or medical research behind them. And anyway, Drs Fuhrman and Esselstyn have already claimed that heard disease and type 2 diabetes can be reversed bu eating a plant based diet, and both have had 100% success rates, so what's the big deal if it does help with those conditions?

If you have half a day and were interested in Salba you could read the blog, I won't go into it all here, but the bits I have read, including the emphasis on patent and trade marks, make me think it is a somewhat hyped up product, and that's being kind. Others may reach different conclusions.

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