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Honda to Sell 'Natto'-Derived Enzyme That Keeps Blood From Clotting

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Feb. 28--TOKYO -- Honda Trading Co., a wholly owned Honda Motor Co. arm, said Tuesday it will start marketing in March the "Nattokinase" enzyme produced by the beneficial bacteria "bacillus natto" which helps prevent blood clotting.

The enzyme is a key ingredient in the namesake dietary supplement, which has an annual 15 billion yen market in Japan.

The enzyme is produced via the natto fermentation process. It helps prevent blood from developing thrombi, which could cause strokes by obstructing the flow of blood. Natto, produced by adding the bacteria to boiled soybeans, has been a popular food in Japan for a long time.

The trading house has been developing since 1998 a technology to apply the enzyme to a dietary supplement by teaming up with professor Hiroyuki Sumi of Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts.

Honda Trading, which is planning to market the supplement in the U.S. market as well, arranged for soybeans to be mass-produced, starting in 1991, at a plowed field near its auto-making plant in the U.S. state of Ohio. The farm produce has been exported to Japan.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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HMC, 7267,

Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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