Quillaia is the milled inner

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

or small stems and branches of the

soapbark ''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 32 to 40° South Latitude approximately and at up to 2000 m (6500&nb ...

(''Quillaja saponaria''). Other names include ''Murillo bark extract'', ''Panama bark extract'', ''Quillaia extract'', ''Quillay bark extract'', ''Soapbark extract'', and . Quillaia contains high concentrations of

saponin Saponins (Latin ''sapon'', 'soap' + ''-in'', 'one of') are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals that become foamy when agitated in water and have high molecular weight. They are present ...

s that can be increased further by processing. Highly purified saponins from quillaia bark 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 * Analge ...

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 Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

s and other

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as ...

s, and

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

.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. 6 March 2019. Quillaia is used in the manufacture of

food additive Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives, such as vinegar ( pickling), salt ( salting), smoke ( smoking) and sugar ( crystallization), have been used f ...

s. The extract also is used as a

humectant A humectant is a hygroscopic (water-absorbing) substance used to keep things moist. They are used in many products, including food, cosmetics, medicines and pesticides. When used as a food additive, a humectant has the effect of keeping moistu ...

in baked goods, frozen dairy products, and puddings and as a

foaming agent A foaming agent is a material such as a surfactant or a blowing agent that facilitates the formation of foam. A surfactant, when present in small amounts, reduces surface tension of a liquid (reduces the work needed to create the foam) or increas ...

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

s. 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.

Use in medicine

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 non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both ...

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

s (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 primarily affects even-toed ungulates, including domestic and wild Bovidae, bovids. The vir ...

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, 19 July 2021. ''Quil A'' is still a mixture of more than 25 different saponin molecules. One of them, the saponin

QS21 QS-21 is a purified plant extract used as a vaccine adjuvant. It is derived from the soap bark tree (''Quillaja saponaria''), which is native to the countries of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. The crude drug (''Quillajae cortex'', Quillaia) is import ...

, has been investigated for as an adjuvant for human vaccines.

Novavax Novavax, Inc. is an American biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that develops vaccines to counter serious infectious diseases. Prior to 2020, company scientists developed experimental vaccines for influenza and respiratory sy ...

uses a highly purified quillaja extract as an

adjuvant 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 * Anal ...

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