Article from Chosun Newspaper, Seoul, Korea / January 2010 by Shin Hyeon-jong
A graduate of Seoul National University’s Department of Agricultural Biology with a Masters in Biochemical Engineering from MIT and a doctorate in Microbiology from Penn State University, Dr. Bok Song-hae, age 66, suddenly started consuming about two bottles of soju rice wine (with alcohol content equivalent to two bottles of grape wine) daily. Not missing a day, in one year he consumed some 700 bottles.
He went to the hospital each month to have his liver function test checked. To his surprise, the liver was not only not damaged, it became healthier. This ‘human guinea pig' was delighted to find his creation, JBB20, truly effective.
JBB20 is a powdered hangover remedy. Though having not yet established a substantial market for itself in Korea, it is offered under the name Liver Detox to U.S. armed forces (USFK) who want something for their mistreated livers after drinking. The developer is Dr. Song-hae Bok, the former head of Korea Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology.
Why did he hang his hopes on JBB20 after establishing bio-venture company, Bionutrigen?
He was targeting the potential multi-billion dollar global market for hangover prevention – the “alcohol management” market. JBB20 is composed of a formulated mixture of ingredients derived from persimmon, onion, citrus, gogi, soy bean sprout and buckwheat, along with vitamin C.
Dr. Bok had noticed that another product, RU-21, became popular after it became known that Russian KGB agents used it to increase the enzyme produced by the body after it has absorbed alcohol, this being the rationale used for claims that it prevented liver damage. "But the two things are different," Dr. Bok said. While RU-21 helps to detoxify alcohol, JBB20 does so in a process that really does protect the liver and also the brain without any side-effects.”
Dr. Bok received the Olympic Memorial Award for his product at the 2005 Taipei International Invention Show for an “Alcohol Killer” product, and also the Order of Industrial Service Merit at the ‘Invention Day’ event in 2008.
His work with this hangover prevention remedy started after his friend’s father had a stroke. This was at a time when the domestic citrus business was under threat of agricultural market liberalization from overseas. Citrus peel, known to possess blood-cleansing effect in lab mice, contained ingredients that prevented heart disease and arteriosclerosis.
He had a eureka moment, wondering if it had an effect on the liver as well. As a result, he accidently hit upon the path to heart disease prevention by his hangover prevention remedy through improved liver function. Dr. Bok noted, "I have received 240 patents to date through systematic work, but because of the way that JBB20was invented, it can be described as something ‘heaven-sent’."
As he risked his body in the name of experimentation, this was “adding insult to injury”. “When I tried to get my younger colleagues to try the ingredients, they refused, so I had to try the formula on myself. I had good reason to be optimistic because of our results using the JBB20 formula with laboratory animals, but, I was aware of the danger to me personally because previously, I had once almost lost my life when I couldn’t adequately eliminate alcohol from my body after consuming three bottles of soju.”
He described what happened later. “As I established my routine of drinking two bottles of soju per day I built up confidence. Then, one day, when I was celebrating with friends, I drank four bottles of soju after taking JBB20, and then I drank half a bottle of whiskey. I fell asleep, but when I awoke three hours later, my head was very clear. When I experimented with heavy-drinking friends, results were so good that they all thought that I must have given them an illicit drug.”
Five years ago, a simply-dressed doctor from France visited him at his laboratory at the KRIBB Institute. It was Jean-Pierre Willem, age 71, a pupil of Albert Schweitzer, who had helped to establish Doctors Without Borders. He returned to France with samples of Dr. Bok’s formula to repeat experiments and to do further research; his results show an impact of JBB20 on liver cirrhosis. When the clinical results from his work are released next year, they are expected to have a positive influence on overseas sales of products containing JBB20.
JBB20 is heat tolerant and easily miscible in water. It can be used in many different forms in order to maximize convenience to the consumer. With the current rice wine and alcohol abuse issue embroiling the Korean nation, Dr. Bok believes that the use of JBB20-fortified noodles may be the best approach to deal with this social problem.
In the research of Dr. Bok at the KRIBB, his team looked at 300 food grade substances reputed to have therapeutic value, in order to determine, from a scientific point of view which of them actually did, and how they functioned. Dozens of these substances are currently sold as hangover remedies in global markets, in various forms that include various tonics and pills.
In Korea, this hangover remedy market has reached 120 billion Won in sales. Recently, remedies containing Japanese grape vine extract, raw pepper extract, and corn silk extract have come on the market, causing changes in consumption patterns. There are some 30 types of pill and powder products competing against each other in the Korean market. Vitamin C-rich fruit preparations and broths containing cabbage, bean sprout, fish and beef bone comprise the bulk of hangover remedy products sold in Korea. “ But, by themselves, they cannot protect the liver,” according to Dr. Bok.