PLT Health Solutions came home from SupplySide Global 2026 with a trophy. Kinexa took Ingredient Idol's longevity category, and the judges broke a three-way tie to give it the win. We also tasted the new water-dispersible RipFACTOR, and it's much cleaner.
PLT Health Solutions came home from SupplySide Global 2026 with a trophy. On October 28, Dr. Jeremy Appleton, PLT's Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs, pitched Kinexa™ Joint Longevity Complex on the Ingredient Idol stage at Mandalay Bay with models of the knee in hand, and the judges named it the winner of the longevity category.[1] That's quite a first SupplySide for a joint ingredient that only debuted at Natural Products Expo West in March!
The trophy was the biggest news out of Booth #4855, but it wasn't the only thing we brought home from the show we previewed in October:
- Kinexa took Ingredient Idol's longevity title after the audience vote ended in a three-way tie.
- We tasted the new water-dispersible RipFACTOR®, and it has far less botanical taste, which should make it very simple to mask.
- The PLT Experience Zone poured its concept RTDs again, and the booth was loaded with gummies.
- Zynamite® S was everywhere, thanks to show-wide sampling of PLT's Mango Tango concept drink.
Kinexa Takes Ingredient Idol's Longevity Crown
Ingredient Idol is the live pitch competition run by SupplySide Supplement Journal (SSJ). This year, three finalists in each of three categories (adaptogens, biotics, and longevity) pitched in front of a packed, standing-room crowd. The audience voted by applause, and judges Diana Morgan, Doug Lynch, and David Foreman made the final calls.[1]
In longevity, the crowd couldn't separate the finalists. The applause vote ended in a three-way tie, so the judges broke it, and they picked Kinexa. Appleton used knee models on stage to demonstrate what Kinexa does inside the joint, and he told SSJ that PLT hopes Kinexa will "change the conversation about what a longevity ingredient can deliver".
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What the Judges Saw
Most joint supplements measure how your knees feel. Kinexa measured what is actually happening inside. Cartilage, ligaments, menisci, synovium, and subchondral bone. All five. One study. MRI-confirmed.
Kinexa is a patented blend of standardized haritaki (Terminalia chebula), turmeric (Curcuma longa), and Indian frankincense (Boswellia serrata) extracts, taken at 200mg once daily. Plenty of joint ingredients have comfort scores. Very few have looked inside the joint the way PLT did.
In PLT's six-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 100 adults aged 40 to 75 with Grade II or III knee osteoarthritis took 200mg of Kinexa or placebo every day. On top of standard comfort and function questionnaires, researchers used three MRI methods to assess five joint structures: cartilage, menisci, ligaments, synovium, and subchondral bone. PLT reports a 10% improvement in cartilage thickness and a 24% improvement in knee strength in the Kinexa group, along with improvements across all five structures while the placebo group's scores worsened.
The paper is still working through publication, so our Kinexa deep dive is the place to see the full imaging breakdown, including the WORMS and dGEMRIC results.
That structural data is why Kinexa anchors PLT's Experiential Longevity™ platform, which ties cellular mechanisms to benefits people notice in daily life. Kinexa shares the platform with Strengthera® for muscle, TestFACTOR® for men's vitality, and NutriCog for cognition.
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Appleton's Double Shift
PLT Health's Experiential Longevity™ platform delivers near-term benefits consumers can feel while foundational cellular work pays off over a lifetime.
Appleton's Wednesday started hours before Ingredient Idol. That morning, he presented Defining the Longevity Opportunity: Cellular and Experiential Solutions at the Product Development Theater, and PLT says the session drew a packed house. His argument is that longevity innovation has to go beyond cellular health and lifespan toward healthspan, meaning improvements people can feel in mobility, activity, and overall wellness. That afternoon, he made the same case on the Ingredient Idol stage with Kinexa.
Brands can already find Kinexa at its full 200mg dose in Instaflex Complete, the first product to market with it. PLT took the next-generation grade to Vitafoods Asia in September, and at the Future Nutra Innovation Summit it showed us a mixed berry Kinexa chew concept that fits the full 200mg into two chews. For how Kinexa fits alongside AprèsFlex® and PLT's other Boswellia ingredients, see our joint health platform overview.
It was a good afternoon for companies we follow closely, too. Helaina's effera® swept the biotics category with both the judges' prize and the audience vote, which we covered in our Helaina SupplySide Global 2026 recap.
A Cleaner-Tasting, Water-Dispersible RipFACTOR
The tasting we're still talking about happened at the booth. PLT poured us its new water-dispersible RipFACTOR, and it has much less of the earthy, botanical taste you'd expect from bark and flower extracts. What's left would be very simple to mask with a normal flavor system.
RipFACTOR combines East Indian globe thistle (Sphaeranthus indicus) flower head and mango (Mangifera indica) bark extracts, and two published randomized, placebo-controlled trials in young men back it up:
PLT Health's RipFACTOR Muscle-Building Supplement has new data showing 10-15% gains in strength, reps performed, and total testosterone... and an insane 30-40% increase in free testosterone![2]
- 2023: 40 men took 650mg per day or placebo for 56 days while following a fixed resistance training program. The RipFACTOR group improved its bench press, leg press, handgrip strength, reps, and treadmill time to exhaustion significantly more than placebo.[3]
- 2024: 99 previously untrained men completed eight weeks of supervised training with 425mg, 850mg, or placebo. Both doses beat training alone on strength and reps to failure, and the 850mg group out-benched a placebo group doing twice the sets by about 10kg. That trial used a water-dispersible version of the blend.[4]
The second trial's testosterone results are in our 2024 RipFACTOR study breakdown.
Built for Powders and Drinks
Taste has always been the catch with botanicals like these. When PLT introduced its advanced water-dispersible RipFACTOR grade in October 2024, aimed at ready-to-mix powders, protein powders, stick packs, and gummies, Brett Bernier, PLT's Director of Sports and Active Nutrition, explained the problem:
"Plant-based materials like botanicals can be difficult to formulate with because of flavor issues..."[5]
-- Brett Bernier, Director of Sports and Active Nutrition, PLT Health Solutions
Judging by the sample we tasted in Las Vegas, PLT has pushed the flavor a lot further since then. Our RipFACTOR deep dive covers dosing for both the capsule and water-dispersible grades.
Since both trials dosed RipFACTOR daily for eight weeks, it belongs in products people take consistently, from pre-workouts to protein. It was part of our hypothetical PLT pre-workout in Formulator's Corner #19. A cleaner-tasting grade should make RipFACTOR shakes, RTDs, and gummies much easier to flavor.
Inside the Experience Zone: Concept RTDs and Tons of Gummies
Steve Fink and Brett Bernier break down PLT Health Solutions joint, energy, and calm focus ingredients built for drinks, gummies, and chews.
The PLT Experience Zone is where PLT shows brands its ingredients in finished formats, and this year it covered energy, mood, cognition, and sports nutrition across RTDs, stick packs, and gummies.
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Ranking the Concept Drinks
We tasted through PLT's concept drinks again and ranked them with Cody and Victoria. Several first appeared on PLT's IFT First 2026 lineup in July, which paired drinks with Zembrin®, Zynamite S, Rhodiolife®, cellflo6®, MegaNatural-BP®, and Supresa®.
For taste, our favorite was the grape concept built on MegaNatural-BP, PLT's California grape seed extract with cardiovascular and blood flow research behind it. That makes it a natural fit for non-stim pump and endurance products like Core Culture Clean Pre (see our Clean Pre breakdown), and we've also covered its metabolic health research.
For the market, the Zembrin concept had the most interesting formula on the table. Zembrin is PLT's standardized kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) extract for mood and stress support, and its human trials center on a tiny 25mg dose. It's already the only functional ingredient in On The Brightside's non-alcoholic feel-good soda, and our Zembrin delivery formats roundup found it in RTDs, gummies, capsules, liposomal sachets, and dissolvable strips. A great-tasting mood RTD is a brief plenty of brands could run with.
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Gummies Everywhere
The drinks had company. PLT had tons of gummies at the booth this year, and its ingredients were built for them.
PLT Health Solutions: Growth Through Innovation
When we interviewed Steve Fink, PLT's Vice President of Marketing, and Brett Bernier at FNIS, they told us PLT committed about a decade ago to developing grades of its ingredients that work in beverages, gummies, stick packs, and ready-to-mix products. Brett's checklist for those formats is short: low input levels (gummies and chews may cap out around 100mg to 200mg of active), neutral taste, and enough stability to survive hot manufacturing and a 12- to 24-month shelf life. Steve was clear that this isn't easy:
"It takes an enormous commitment, often years of research."
-- Steve Fink, Vice President of Marketing, PLT Health Solutions
PLT's clinical doses fit inside that gummy budget. Zembrin's 25mg dose already shows up in stress and sleep gummies like Sakara Life Serene State and First Day's Nighttime Reset Magnesium gummies (in women's and men's versions). PLT's FNIS chew concepts fit Kinexa's full 200mg into two chews, and 60mg of Dynagenix®, PLT's water-soluble Boswellia extract for joint comfort and exercise recovery, into a single soft chew. We'd love to see brands take any of these to market.
Zynamite S Mango Tango Worked the Whole Show
Zynamite is PLT Health's Next-Gen Brain and Body Support Ingredient, harnessing the power of ≥60% mangiferin from mango leaf extract
Mango Tango was hard to miss in Las Vegas. PLT ran show-wide sampling of its 12oz Mango Tango concept RTD and Zynamite S stick packs, with sampling stations around the show in addition to the booth. According to WholeFoods Magazine's show preview, PLT was SupplySide Global 2026's Official Energy Sponsor, with Zynamite S as its lead ingredient.[6]
Zynamite S is the water-soluble form of PLT's mango leaf (Mangifera indica) extract, standardized to at least 60% mangiferin, and it gives energy drinks a non-stimulant option for mental energy. In two published human trials, a single 100mg dose improved processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and mood measures over a five-hour testing window, and the 2026 replication trial detected some effects within 30 minutes.[7][8]
We covered that replication trial when PLT first announced it in PLT Health's Second Zynamite S Study, and we've tracked the ingredient's move into finished cans in Zynamite in the Wild: Four RTDs and our energy drink case study.
Mango Tango is PLT's own follow-up to CREATEA Mighty Mango, the collaborative Zynamite S concept drink PricePlow's Ben Kane spearheaded for SupplySide Global 2025. The panel behind it is on Episode #189 of the PricePlow Podcast, and PLT's turn as that year's official performance beverage sponsor is in our SupplySide Global 2025 recap.
Ingredients You Can Feel, in Formats People Take
Zoom out, and PLT's 2026 tells a consistent story. It debuted Kinexa at Expo West, poured six functional drinks at IFT First, exhibited at Vitafoods Asia for the first time, brought joint chews to FNIS as a title sponsor, and then took home an Ingredient Idol trophy in Las Vegas.
The thread through all of it is what PLT calls Feel the Science: clinically studied ingredients with effects people notice, at doses small enough and in grades clean enough to fit the gummies, chews, stick packs, and RTDs people take every day. Most of PLT's 30-plus ingredients are considered beverage-friendly, a portfolio we first mapped in PLT Health's Beverage Stable Ingredients. A trophy for Kinexa and a cleaner-tasting RipFACTOR are the latest signs the strategy is working.
Congratulations to the PLT Team
Congratulations to Dr. Appleton and the whole PLT team on the Ingredient Idol win! Kinexa earned it with a study design the joint category has rarely seen, and we'll break down the paper when it publishes. We're just as excited about the new water-dispersible RipFACTOR, because a strength ingredient that's this easy to mask belongs in far more powders, shakes, and drinks.
Brands that missed PLT in Las Vegas can set up a conversation through PLT's website. The team signed off from the show promising to see everyone at the next one.
We'll cover the Kinexa paper and new RipFACTOR products as they land, so sign up for PLT Health Solutions, Kinexa, and RipFACTOR alerts below:
