AJI-NO-MOTO®

AJI-NO-MOTO® is an umami seasoning with a wide variety of uses. Its main ingredient is monosodium glutamate (MSG), a sodium salt of glutamic acid, which is the source of the flavor of kelp. Glutamic acid is one of twenty basic amino acids found in the natural protein of vegetables, meat and fish.

Flavor seasonings

Flavor seasonings are blends of spices, salt, sugar, umami seasonings and other ingredients with extracts of meat, fish or vegetables. They are used in a wide range of dishes and applications, including soups, stir-fried dishes and pre-seasoning.

Premixed sauces

A type of menu-specific seasoning, mainly in liquid form. Generally refers to the Cook Do® line sold in Japan.

Menu-Specific Seasonings

Menu-specific seasonings realize quick and easy preparation of delicious household dishes of countries around the world. They are equivalent to Cook Do® premixed sauces in Japan. 
Chili peppers, herbs and spices that give the essential flavor to these household dishes are combined in just the right proportions with ingredients such as meat, fish and vegetable extracts.

Savory Seasonings

Seasonings that give processed foods a rich, full-bodied taste called “kokumi.” The Ajinomoto Group has launched a lineup of products that combine hydrolyzed vegetable and animal proteins with yeast extracts, and products that use fish extracts such as dried bonito or meat extracts such as chicken and beef.

Enzyme Preparations

Preparations that harness the functions of enzymes to elicit various changes in texture or other aspects of food. The Ajinomoto Group was the first in the world to mass-produce transglutaminase (TG). Found in many plants and animals, TG is a naturally occurring enzyme that enables the cross-linkage of protein molecules. By combining TG and other food ingredients, the Group launched food enzyme preparations under the ACTIVA® brand that can be widely used for purposes such as texture improvement of processed food products. The products are used worldwide in a variety of fields, including meat and fish processing and noodle manufacturing.

Nucleotide Seasonings

Umami seasonings whose main ingredients are the nucleotides sodium inosinate, the umami component of dried bonito, and sodium guanylate, the umami component of dried shiitake mushrooms. Using these two nucleotides in combination with monosodium glutamate (MSG), the source of the umami of kelp, produces a synergistic effect that results in an even stronger, richer taste.

Aspartame

A high-potency sweetener made from two amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Advantame

A new sweetener made from aspartame. It is approximately 30,000 times sweeter than sugar. A key feature is Advantame’s compatibility with foods and beverages owing to a sweetness profile close to that of sugar.

Release paper

Release paper is a specially processed paper embossed with the look of natural leather or geometric and other patterns. Synthetic leather with a variety of designs can be manufactured by transferring the embossed patterns to the surface of polyurethane or vinyl chloride sheets. This type of synthetic leather is used in a wide variety of everyday products, including fashion items like shoes, bags and clothing, sports shoes with enhanced functionality, and large-sized items, such as furniture and car interiors.

Cell culture media

Nutrient solutions that contain a good balance of growth factors and other substances along with amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and minerals required by cells.

Serum-Free Culture Medium

Serum is one of the components of blood, containing lipids and proteins. Although it is an effective medium for cell growth, the inclusion of serum entails problems concerning variations in quality and composition due to the origin of the blood, as well as possible pathogen content. Cell culture media supplemented with active ingredients that substitute for serum are safe and enable stable culture medium performance.

Essential Amino Acids

Amino acids are the body’s protein building blocks. Essential amino acids are those that an animal’s body cannot synthesize and must therefore be acquired from external sources through ingestion or other means. For humans, there are 20 amino acids that make up proteins in the body, of which nine are considered essential amino acids.

Medical Foods

Foods classified between pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They are eligible for reimbursement under U.S. health insurance guidelines.

iPS cells

An iPS cell (induced pluripotent stem cell) is made by introducing various types of reprogramming factors into human somatic cells. iPS cells can differentiate into various tissue and organ cells and proliferate indefinitely in culture.

ES cells

An ES cell (embryonic stem cell) is derived from the inner cell mass of a human blastocyst (a very early embryo) that is capable of differentiating into the various tissue and organ cells that make up the body.

Pharmaceutical Intermediates, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), High-Potency Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPIs)

Ingredients that display pharmacological activity in drugs are called active pharmaceutical ingredients and the substances one stage before them in the production process are generally called pharmaceutical intermediates. Among active pharmaceutical ingredients, substances that display effects in particularly small amounts, such as anticancer agents, are called high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients. They are manufactured in containment facilities because trace amounts have an impact on the environment and the human body.

Biopharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals manufactured using biotechnologies such as gene recombination. Biopharmaceuticals are expected to have potential applications for diseases that were previously untreatable, as well as high levels of safety and efficacy with minimal side effects. Examples include treatments for cancer and rheumatism, typified by therapeutic antibodies that utilize the immune function.

AJIPHASE ®

Contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) service platform for oligonucleotides, PMOs, PPMOs and peptides by using Ajinomoto’s proprietary liquid phase synthesis technologies which has advantages in large scale manufacture compared with commonly used solid phase synthesis.
For more information https://ajibio-pharma.ajinomoto.com/ajiphase/

CORYNEX®

Contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) service for peptide/protein using Ajinomoto‘s proprietary Corynebacterium expression platform (glutamate-producing bacteria).
It has excellent features for biopharmaceutical production, such as no endotoxin and direct secretion of target proteins into the culture medium with high purity.
For more information https://ajibio-pharma.ajinomoto.com/corynex/

TALAMAX®

Contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) service for antibody using Ajinomoto's innovative proprietary microorganisms enabling cost affordable antibody production in microorganism production facilities using low-cost raw materials. In addition, no mammalian type glycochain attached to antibodies produced by TALAMAX® having an advantage of reducing the risk of side effects derived from glycochain.
For more information https://ajibio-pharma.ajinomoto.com/talamax/

AJICAP®

Next generation antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) creation, and contract development and manufacturing service with Ajinomoto’s proprietary site-specific conjugation and linker technologies enabling the straightforward preparation of ADCs with higher efficacy and lower toxicity.
For more information https://ajibio-pharma.ajinomoto.com/ajicap/

Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs)

Drugs with a structure in which a high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) is bound to an antibody. Due to the way the antibody portion binds to cancer and other cells, thus allowing the HPAPI to act directly on cancer cells, ADCs have potential as next-generation pharmaceuticals with high target selectivity and few side effects.

Oligonucleotide Drugs

Drugs that use the genetic materials DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) as their medicinal components. The main components of these drugs are made by designing the four types of bases that constitute oligonucleotides or their derivatives to have useful functions against disease targets, and linking them in a straight chain through chemical synthesis of a few to over a hundred nucleic acid constituents (oligonucleotides). A feature of oligonucleotide drugs is that they act directly on genes that cannot be targeted by small-molecule drugs or therapeutic antibodies, and because their targets and mechanisms of action are clear and highly specific, there are expectations for them as next-generation drugs with minimal side effects.

Oligonucleotides

The main constituents of oligonucleotide drugs, linked in a straight chain through chemical synthesis of a few to over a hundred.

Foods with Functional Claims

In April 2015, a labeling system for foods with functional claims was adopted in Japan, allowing the indication of the health-promoting functions of substances contained in products, based on scientific evidence and at the responsibility of the business operator. Business operators are required to ensure safety (i.e. conduct assessment of actual data on ingestion and harmfulness over time, establish systems for quality control and collect information on adverse health effects), establish scientific evidence (based on peer-reviewed papers on clinical trial data or reviews of research) and provide information to consumers through proper labeling. In addition, the labeling system for foods with functional claims requires advance notice (60 days prior to the start of sales) to the Consumer Affairs Agency, as prescribed in the “Food Labeling Standards” of the Food Labeling Act.