“Bovine liver powder.”

Sometimes that’s the entire spec. Three words on a formulation sheet, handed to purchasing with a due date attached.

It isn’t enough to buy from, and the person who wrote it usually knows that.

Defatted or undefatted? Powder or granular? What origin documentation does your quality team need before the material clears? Answer those and you’re sourcing an ingredient. Skip them and you’re sourcing a name.

ASI International - Specialty Ingredients lists more than 100 glandular ingredients across bovine, porcine, ovine and venison. We don’t lead with that number to impress anyone. It matters because it means we can keep the conversation on what your formulation needs, instead of steering you toward the closest thing on a list.

First: which animal, which organ

Four sources, and the organ list runs deep under each one.

Bovine. Adrenal, adrenal cortex, heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, pituitary, placenta, spleen, thymus, thyroid, trachea, orchic, ovary.

Porcine. Adrenal, adrenal cortex, brain, duodenum, heart, kidney, liver, pancreas, pineal, pituitary, spleen, thymus, intrinsic factor.

Ovine. Adrenal, aorta, brain, heart, kidney, liver, pancreas, placenta, spleen, thymus, thyroid, trachea, amniotic fluid, bile.

Venison. Adrenal, bone, brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, placenta, spleen, thymus, velvet.

Almost any supplier can get you liver. A list like this matters on the day your formulation calls for something that isn’t liver.

The uncommon materials are the real test

The category gets interesting further down the catalog.

Our catalog includes Bovine Ox Bile Powder and Bovine Ox Bile Extract standardized to 45% cholic acid. Bovine Placenta Powder and Extract. Porcine Intrinsic Factor, Porcine Pineal and Porcine Pituitary. Ovine Amniotic Fluid and Ovine Bile Powder. Venison Velvet Powder.

If you’ve ever tried to source any of those, you already know why we’re listing them.

Five things to pin down before you send the RFQ

Animal source and organ or tissue. Bovine, porcine, ovine or venison — and which organ. This is the fastest way to cut the field.

Form and processing. A product name is not a specification. Our liver materials alone come defatted and undefatted, in powder and granular. Same name on the spec sheet. Not the same material.

Composition or standardization. If your formulation depends on a defined constituent or concentration, say so up front. Ox Bile Extract standardized to 45% cholic acid is a different purchase than ox bile.

Origin and animal-source documentation. Animal-derived ingredients bring documentation requirements, and every quality program draws the line somewhere different. Tell us where yours draws it rather than finding out at receiving.

Where it’s going. A capsule, a powder blend, a desiccated organ product and an animal nutrition formulation don’t ask the same things of the same material. The finished product shapes the spec.

More on how we qualify suppliers and handle ingredient documentation is on our Quality page.

The narrower the requirement, the more the conversation matters

A defatted bovine liver granular and an undefatted bovine liver powder are both bovine liver. They are not interchangeable, and neither one is the right answer for every formulation.

That’s why we’d rather hear the requirement than the product name. Tell us the species, the organ, the form you need and what your quality program expects to see, and we can be useful on the first call. Tell us “bovine liver powder” and we’re both guessing.

Looking for a specific glandular ingredient?

Start with whatever you have. Animal source, organ or tissue, form, specification, application, quantity. If there’s a spec sheet, send it.

If it’s in our portfolio, we’ll quote it. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you whether we can find it — and we’ll tell you if we can’t.