Rapidly becoming one of the leading
natural ingredients suppliers in the world

U.S. Nutra was founded in 1999 with its initial focus on the saw palmetto extract business. Saw Palmetto is among the top five nutraceuticals sold today in the United States. The company's central Florida location and ownership of substantial saw palmetto berry procurement and processing facilities has positioned it as the category leader within the world's saw palmetto industry.

In 2001, U.S. Nutra built an ultra-high pressure supercritical fluid extraction facility at our Eustis, Florida location. It was commissioned in March 2002. Today, this facility is the only supercritical fluid extraction facility in North America devoted exclusively to production of high-value nutraceutical ingredients for the dietary supplement, functional food and cosmeceutical industries. This facility places us in the unique position of being the only vertically integrated saw palmetto nutraceuticals producer in the world. We currently supply bulk saw palmetto oil to the world's largest brands and dose encapsulators of retail nutraceuticals.

In 2004, U.S. Nutra changed it's name to Valensa International, which more clearly depicts its position as an international leader in nutraceutical sourcing.

In addition to saw palmetto, Valensa now produces a line of high value extracts for use as ingredients in dietary supplements, functional foods and cosmeceuticals. These extracts include ginger, rosemary, St. John's Wort, oregano, valerian, cranberry seed and others.

In 2002, the company acquired all of the astaxanthin ("asta-zan-thin") business assets of La Haye Laboratories, Inc.(Redmond, Washington, USA) La Haye was successful in securing patents for use in the prevention of macular degeneration and other diseases using antioxidant-rich substances such as astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin is a potent natural antioxidant derived from cultivated algae, Haematococcus pluvialis, which has been scientifically linked to wide range of health benefits including eye, cardiovascular and immune health. Some of these reported benefits are due to the ability of astaxanthin to combat 'free radicals' and other reactive species. Valensa has pioneered novel forms of processing pure astxanthin using its supercritical-fluid extraction technology to concentrate and standardize this beneficial nutraceutical antioxidant known as Zanthin®.