Cannabis Edibles and Drink Review had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Alexey Peshkovsky, Co-founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Industrial Sonomechanics, LLC.
CEDR: Alexey, could you tell us about your company and how you got into the cannabis space?
Alexey: Industrial Sonomechanics has been around for about 15 years. Our company is a research & development firm specializing in high-amplitude ultrasonic technology for liquid processing, such as nano-emulsification.
High-amplitude ultrasonic liquid processing has been around since the 1960s, although prior to the introduction of our Barbell Horn Ultrasonic Technology (BHUT), it was restricted to the laboratory scale. Industrial Sonomechanics co-founder, and my father, Dr. Sergei Peshkovsky, spent several decades developing methods to scale-up this technology in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, in the United States and Europe, high-amplitude ultrasonic technology was partially adopted by the pharmaceutical industry to convert poorly water-soluble bioactive substances into nanoparticles to improve their absorption by the body. I say “partially” because, due to conventional ultrasonic technology limitations, equipment scale-up always caused the amplitudes to drop far below where they need to be, which is why ultrasonic nano-processing could not be used for commercial production.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, my father continued his research and developed the design principles for the “Barbell Horn®“ – a device that makes it possible to build industrial-scale ultrasonic processors that produce extremely high amplitudes – and, therefore, overcome scale-up limitations of conventional ultrasonic technology. In 2006, my father and I launched Industrial Sonomechanics to commercialize this development and have since obtained a portfolio of U.S. and international patents to protect it.
The company’s initial focus was on the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, where our technology was quickly adopted for the industrial production of nano-formulations, demonstrating orders-of-magnitude greater productivity rates and product quality than alternative approaches. Most pharmaceutical and nutraceutical ingredients are poorly water-soluble, so their oral/digestive delivery suffers from low bioavailability and delayed onset of action. Making these ingredients water-compatible by converting them into nano-formulations, such as nanoemulsions, liposomes or nanocrystals, is now a well-established technique for improving gastrointestinal drug delivery.
Over the past several years, as cannabis legalization swept across North America, cannabis and hemp producers approached Industrial Sonomechanics with similar issues (what we call an ‘imperfect experience’) with their edible products: the unpredictable onset and duration, low bioavailability and inconsistent quality between batches. Additionally, as the market quickly matured, producers needed to develop innovative product offerings for the rapidly expanding market. Applying our scalable ultrasonic technology and formulations developed for the pharmaceutical industry to the cannabis space resulted in instant success and significant demand for our equipment and all-in-one NanoStabilizer® product family.
CEDR: How exactly does your technology translate to cannabis?
Alexey: As I mentioned, consumers of edible cannabis products frequently have an imperfect experience. Typically, if you consume an edible product containing cannabis oil, there are unpredictable outcomes. For example, the effects may be significantly delayed post-consumption, meaning you may not feel the effects for over an hour. There is also an unpredictability as it relates to how much effect you will get from the edible and how long it will last.
Let me provide a little background on why cannabis oil causes these issues. Bioactives, like THC and CBD, are not water-soluble. That said, THC, CBD and many other oils can be made water-compatible if they are formulated as nanoemulsions. Nanoemulsions are stable and allow the bioactives to easily enter the bloodstream. The key to creating these nanoemulsions is the high-amplitude ultrasonic technology and appropriate formulations.
With extremely high amplitudes on the order of 100 microns, the Barbell Horn® Ultrasonic Technology is the only ultrasonic technology to provide a scaled-up process that guarantees the same product quality in a production environment as in a laboratory setting.
The cannabis consumer benefits from a much more predictable experience. With our technology, consuming cannabis that has been nano-emulsified is much like drinking a glass of wine. You’ll be able to predict when you will start to feel the effects, know how it will make you feel, and will also know when it will move out of your system.
CEDR: Anything that you can share about exciting developments in 2021?
Alexey: One of our very recently launched natural products in the NanoStabilizer® family, NanoStabilizer®-LSO, has already gained significant traction with our customers. With NanoStabilizer®-LSO, nanoemulsions can be easily turned into water-soluble powders, without requiring any additional ingredients. These powders are preferred by customers in the manufacturing process, and can be combined with water or any other beverage to reconstitute into the original highly bioavailable nanoemulsions. This presents huge opportunities for the delivery of THC and CBD along with many other bioactives. Additionally, this THC and/or CBD-containing nanoemulsion powder can be produced in the form of a tablet. When consumed, the tablet will rapidly disintegrate inside the mouth, fully dissolving into saliva that will act as the vehicle for reconstituting the nano-emulsified bioactive, ensuring its rapid and efficient delivery into the bloodstream.
CEDR: Thanks, Alexey, for the great insights!
