Quillaia is the milled inner bark or small stems and branches of the soapbark ( ''Quillaja saponaria'', Molina). Other names include ''Murillo bark extract'', ''Panama bark extract'', ''Quillaia extract'', ''Quillay bark extract'', and ''Soapbark extract''. Quillaia contains high concentrations of

saponin Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...

s that can be increased further by processing. Highly purified saponins from quillaia are used as

adjuvants In pharmacology, an adjuvant is a drug or other substance, or a combination of substances, that is used to increase the efficacy or potency of certain drugs. Specifically, the term can refer to: * Adjuvant therapy in cancer management * Analgesi ...

to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines. Other compounds in the crude extract include

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner ...

s and other

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some o ...

s, and

calcium oxalate Calcium oxalate (in archaic terminology, oxalate of lime) is a calcium salt of oxalic acid with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' varies from 1 to 3. Anhydrous and all hydrated forms are colorless or white. The monohydrate ...

.EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF) et al
Re-evaluation of Quillaia extract (E 999) as a food additive and safety of the proposed extension of use.
EFSA Journal. 06 March 2019. Quillaia is used in the manufacture of

food additives Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives have been used for centuries as part of an effort to preserve food, for example vinegar (pickling), salt ( s ...

, and it is listed as an ingredient in

root beer Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree '' Sassafras albidum'' or the vine of ''Smilax ornata'' (known as sarsaparilla, also used to make a soft drink, sarsaparilla) as the ...

and cream soda. The extract also is used as a humectant in baked goods, frozen dairy products, and puddings and as a foaming agent in soft drinks. It is used in agriculture for some "natural" spray adjuvant formulations.Biopesticides Registration Action Document
Saponins of Quillaja Saponaria
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 11 September 2009.

Saponin adjuvants

The saponins from ''

Quillaja saponaria ''Quillaja saponaria'', the soap bark tree or soapbark, is an evergreen tree in the family Quillajaceae, native to warm temperate central Chile. In Chile it occurs from 32nd parallel south, 32 to 40th parallel south, 40° South Latitude approxim ...

'' are used in several approved

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.< ...

(e.g.,

foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious disease, infectious and sometimes fatal virus (biology), viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild Bovidae, bovids. The virus causes ...

vaccines). Initially a crude preparation was used, but more recently purified products have been developed. Two of these (''Quil A'' and ''Matrix-M'') have been shown to be more effective and cause less local

irritation Irritation, in biology and physiology, is a state of inflammation or painful reaction to allergy or cell-lining damage. A stimulus or agent which induces the state of irritation is an irritant. Irritants are typically thought of as chemical age ...

. Sarah Jane Tribble and Rachana Pradhan
Novavax’s Effort to Vaccinate the World, From Zero to Not Quite Warp Speed
Kaiser Health News, Kaiser Family Foundation, July 19, 2021. ''Quil A'' is still a mixture of more than 25 different saponin molecules. One of them, the saponin QS21, has been investigated for as an adjuvant for human vaccines. Novavax uses a highly purified quillaja extract as an adjuvant in its veterinary and human vaccines. The adjuvant, ''Matrix-M'', is made at facilities in Sweden and Denmark.

References

External links

WHO report
Food additives E-number additives {{Ingredient-stub