When Ilan discovered Bioharvest, they were what he terms an “R&D gold mine.” Like many Israeli companies, the pioneering start-up had spent over a decade on research and development, but when he joined four and a half years ago, they still didn’t know how to mine the gold.

That’s where his previous work experience proved so crucial. “It was G-d’s intervention for me to come into this role, because ultimately, so much of my past work experience has helped me to be able to unlock the potential in this company. We’re the first novel food ever to achieve approval by Israel’s Health Ministry. It’s a huge achievement. And we’re really, really proud of that.”

Bioharvest was founded by a serial entrepreneur,  Dr. Zaki Rakib, and PhD biologist Dr. Yochi Hagay, who had a firm belief that there were vastly powerful health resources hidden in Hashem’s creations. They gathered a team of talented women who shared that belief — Dr. Malkit Azachi, whom Sobel describes as “probably the best PhD plant cell biologist in the world”; Michal Sapir, head of Regulatory Affairs, with major pharma and biotech experience; and COO Dr. Ilana Belzer, a PhD biologist who had extensive manufacturing experience — and together they combined their tech, biology, and business know-how in an effort to extract those resources and package them in an easily accessible supplement.

When Ilan met the team of accomplished women — most of whom were also mothers and grandmothers — he was taken by their talent, accomplishments, work ethic, and sense of mission. “What I saw was amazing molecules and successful clinical trials. The company had raised millions of dollars to fund these trials, all double-blind placebos, and had published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. All they needed was someone to believe in them, to give them that push to take that next step and get into the market.”

Maybe it was a leap of faith on his part, but Ilan was that someone.

The French Paradox

Long before Ilan entered the Bioharvest story, the team had been focusing their research and development on one small, red fruit: the grape. “The intrigue began with what we call the ‘French paradox,’ ” says Ilan. The French, everyone knows, like wine. They also have a very fatty diet, which includes lots of liver pâté, lipids, and cheese — but paradoxically, they have overall impressive cardiovascular health.

“And that,” Ilan explains, “is because of the moderate consumption of red wine. Your average Frenchman consumes two to three glasses of red wine every day — at least one with every meal.” Something in the wine seemed to be countering the negative cardiovascular effects of all that fat consumption.

Scientists examined the red grape, which contains, as do many plants, compounds called polyphenols. Then they homed in on a specific polyphenol known as piceid resveratrol, which is present in tiny amounts in red grapes.

Resveratrol is very famous in the longevity world. It’s known to have a variety of  therapeutic effects, including anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects, and studies show that it has significant anti-aging benefits.

“We grow this in a highly sterile aseptic environment,” Ilan says proudly. “And then we literally provide the active ingredients to the consumer. We produce piceid resveratrol, which is the gold standard of resveratrol, the Rolls-Royce of resveratrol, because it has much greater solubility and bioavailability levels than do other sellers in the market, who can only supply regular resveratrol, much of it made from Japanese knotweed. We increased the levels of piceid by 100 times what’s found in the red grape. And we’re the only company in the world that’s able to produce Piceid Resveratrol at a commercial industrial scale together with all the other polyphenols in the red grape.”

You won’t find grapes in Bioharvest’s Yavne facility, just petri dishes and bioreactors filled with beautifully colored purple product. Ilan breaks down the steps. “We took cells from multiple parts of the red grape, and we grew these cells in petri dishes. Around 12 years ago, we did hundreds if not thousands of experiments where we changed critical variables like the food we feed the cells, the lighting conditions, the temperature.” The process has two outcomes. First, growing the exact same phytonutrients that are in the plant, which we term ‘mirroring.’ Second, by changing the input conditions, and narrowing our focus to one key compound, we increase the levels of that compound by an order of magnitude, which we term ‘magnification.’ This is all done without in any way changing the molecular structure, which allows us to be classified as a non GMO product.”

Today, the starting point for everything the company produces is the output of the mirrored and magnified processes housed in petri dishes in Bioharvest’s Rechovot and Yavne factories. “Now,” Ilan says, “with the threat of war all around, we have located petri dishes in different, far-apart locations, to avoid ever having to start again from scratch should, G-d forbid, one location be destroyed.”

Then the cells are transferred to 1,000-liter-plus industrial scale bioreactors. “And then,” Ilan says grinning, “we solidify the product, break it into capsules, and that’s what’s inside our VINIA tablets.”

VINIA. Bioharvest’s baby.

Clearing the Fog

VINIA. The little purple capsule that’s become a household buzz word. Of course, there are also VINIA Keurig-compatible cups, and coming soon, VINIA tea and hydration sport drinks. Any way the good people of the world can get their VINIA intake, Ilan’s team has made it accessible. Why are so many customers vying for this grape-derived substance?

“It’s about blood flow,” Ilan says simply. “Just good circulation.”

At age 35, Ilan explains, the dreaded aging process begins, causing the body to produce less nitric oxide, which is an important vasodilator enabling more blood flow. The body also begins to produce more ET1, endothelin-1, which is a vasoconstrictor, constricting blood flow.

VINIA, as demonstrated  in a clinical trial, significantly increases the dilation of arteries. This is achieved by increasing “the good stuff,” the nitric oxide, as well as reducing the “bad stuff,” ET1. It prompts a significant increase in the dilation of arteries, and once those channels have been widened, blood flow is more effective, allowing more oxygen and nutrients to flow to your body, your tissues, your cells, and your organs, leading to more physical energy. This leads to increased oxygenation in the body, lends to more physical energy, more blood flow to the brain, more mental alertness and no more “brain fog.”

“I used to need like three or four coffees every morning, and at maybe 11 o’clock, my brain would begin to chug along,” Ilan says. “Now that I start my day with VINIA, I have the opposite problem. If I wake up at four or five o’clock in the morning and happen to glance at my phone for any reason, I’ll just keep on working because the brain just goes. There’s no brain fog and a lot more mental alertness, and that’s all because of better blood flow to the brain.”

Bioharvest currently has more than 55,000 active customers taking VINIA. Every week they fly material to the US for bottling, and then ship through their third-party logistics directly to consumers or direct business, but no retailers. “We’ve invested $100 million in this technology, and we chose to go direct to consumer and integrative doctors,” Ilan explains, “because many integrative meds and specialists utilize our product.”

(Integrative medicine combines conventional practices with complementary, and more than 10 percent of Americans are utilizing integrative practices today. But lately, even conventional doctors tend to be a lot more open-minded about nutritional supplements.)

Ilan picks up a bottle of VINIA tablets and unscrews the cap to show the purple capsules nestled inside. A faint aroma of wine escapes. “Inside each capsule is the same amount of piceid resveratrol as one bottle of red wine or a thousand red grapes,” he says, “but no sugar, no calories, and no alcohol.”

The company believes health and wellness has no boundaries, no borders. “Everyone deserves a chance to live a healthy fulfilling life,” Ilan says. “It was important for us to have Badatz certification so we could sell into the chareidi community; we’re building a significant chareidi base here in Israel, but also in the US, under the OU certification. We have many serious rabbis in our customer base; they testify that the extra energy and mental alertness helps them with their learning.”

VINIA is also popular in the Israeli Arab communities. “They don’t drink alcohol, of course, and here is an opportunity for them to benefit from the red grape without the sugar of the fruit or the alcohol of the wine. It’s for anyone and everyone,” Ilan says proudly. 

Super Fruits

The fact that the grape is one of the Shivas Haminim is particularly meaningful to Ilan, who values a deep connection to his adopted homeland.

“The Arizal attributes spiritual energies for each of the seven species, directly corresponding to the seven weeks of the Omer. He talks about red grapes growing in beautiful clusters, parallel to the Sefirah of Tiferet, beauty. Blood flow lends so much to beauty, the idea of rosy, robust health.”

The idea to utilize the grape was sparked by the French paradox, but the next Shivas Haminim fruit appeared on Bioharvest’s agenda thanks to the team’s exploration of the Mediterranean diet.

“The Rambam says the basis to good health is a high functioning liver — the liver filters all toxins in your body; and liver health is very, very important for equilibrium, for the balance, for the foundation of the body. And when you look at the Rambam, he speaks about olive oil, explaining that it actually cleans the liver. So we decided to focus on olives next.”

Bioharvest has started the regulation work and clinical trials for their olive-based capsule. The product will be focused on liver health, zooming in on a unique polyphenol antioxidant called Verbascoside, magnified to what the company believes are the highest levels in the world. The olive cell-based nutraceutical contains a matrix of active components with special antioxidant activities and utilizes Bioharvest’s Botanical Synthesis technology, which is non-GMO; it does not in any way change the molecular structure of the compound. The company is focusing its future clinical trials on demonstrating its olive-cells ability to improve liver health and  joint health, leveraging the power of the Mediterranean diet.

And the next Shivas Haminim on their list after that? The pomegranate, with hopes for bringing a pom-powered supplement to market in 2026–27.

“I really believe that the team here is going to build a lasting legacy,” he predicts. “You can achieve legacy in high tech, true, but when it comes to biotech, the everyday impact on people’s lives is just drastic. And that’s the secret to our success: a sheer determination to better the world.

“Ultimately, this is what we’re doing here with our technology, tapping into G-d’s creations,” Ilan says. “Because at the end of the day, there is so much that as human beings we haven’t touched yet. So many secrets in creation, all sitting in front of us. We just needed to develop the technology to be a bridge to the curative powers G-d has imbued in His immense plant kingdom.”

Where the Red Grapes Grow

All plants contain unique phytonutrients that supercharge health and wellness. The challenge Bioharvest faced was growing these plants economically while retaining the consistency of the phytonutrients. Bioharvest’s Botanical Synthesis technology was the answer to that challenge.

The process begins by first selecting the part of the plant that contains the cells with the unique phytonutrients. The Bioharvest team then take cuttings of this part of the plant and begin to grow the cells in a petri dish.

At this point, thousands of experiments have been conducted, CEO Ilan explained to us. The team changed key variables, such as the nutrients fed to the cells, the lighting and temperature levels, and a number of other confidential variables. At this stage, they worked to optimize the conditions so that the cells are able to grow and produce the exact same phytonutrients as the plants, a term we were taught is called “mirroring.” In the case of the red grape cell, the cells contain all the polyphenols from the red grape including catechin, quercetin, anthocyanins, tannins including piceid resveratrol our main active phytonutrient.

The process then focuses on optimizing the variables to also magnify the most important phytonutrients — like the piceid resveratrol — by more than 100X: called “magnifying.”

Once that stage is finished, the cells are locked and they remain in a cell bank, with no need to return to the plant again.

On the left are pictures of the red grape cell banks where the red grape cells are produced. These cell banks provide all the phytonutrients contained in VINIA products.

The cells then move from Erlinmeyer glass flasks to large size bioreactors, where they grow for approximately 17 to 20 days, multiplying and producing the critical phytonutrients. (Note: this photo depicts medium size bioreactors; Bioharvest also uses industrial-scale bioreactors, which hold more than 1,000 liters.)

Once the cells reach maturity and have produced all the required phytonutrients, the liquid is removed. What remains is a rich, wet cake of red grape cells filled with important active phytonutrients.

The rich cakes of red grape cells are now dried, using state-of-the-art drying technology. In a few hours, the wet cells take on their final, dried form, and the final product can now be directly encapsulated into VINIA dietary supplements or VINIA Superfood Coffee capsules.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1031)