The classic joint formulas set out to feed cartilage. MMP13 Cartilage Technology™ starts with the enzyme that eats it, then feeds and lubricates what's left.
Curcumin and boswellia have more MMP13 studies in our library than any other active. A curcumin compound blocked MMP13 directly and protected cartilage; AKBA, the lead boswellic acid, suppressed MMP13 in rats.
Roy 2025 · Wang 2017 · Abo-Zalam 2025Glucosamine and chondroitin are the classic cartilage building blocks, and each has also turned down MMP13's sister enzymes in human cartilage cells. Vitamin C is needed to make collagen, and in the lab it stopped MMP13 rising.
Dodge 2003 · Hsu 2022 · Chiu 2016Hyaluronic acid is the slippery part of joint fluid. In human cartilage cells it also inhibited MMP13, more at higher doses. Omega-3 sits alongside it.
Julovi 2011 · Jhun 2025N-acetyl-cysteine helps cells make glutathione, their own antioxidant. Taken by mouth it held back MMP13 and type II collagen loss in rats.
Kaneko 2019Turmeric powder is only about 3% curcumin, and the body absorbs very little curcumin on its own. So the technology uses a 95% curcumin extract, paired with black pepper.
In human volunteers, adding piperine from black pepper raised curcumin absorption by 2000%. Boswellia is used as a standardised extract with 65% boswellic acids.
curcumin extract, against about 3% in turmeric powder
rise in curcumin absorption with black pepper
boswellic acids in the boswellia extract
actives studied for MMP13 or its sister enzymes
Each of the seven actives has lab or animal research on MMP13 or its sister enzymes. It shows how they act on cartilage cells, not what they do in a person.
4 placebo-controlled trials of boswellia extracts reported less knee discomfort or lower cartilage breakdown markers, and one showed MRI cartilage measures improving. They tested boswellia on its own, so they show what the ingredient can do, not what any one formula does.
No one has yet tested this combination of actives in human cartilage cells. An independent laboratory study of the full combination is being scoped.
What each active is, what job it does and the papers behind it.