YIBIN, China, Sept. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tinghua Liquor’s proprietary “Dual Activation” technology, designed to reduce the adverse effects of alcohol consumption while enhancing its potential benefits, has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) following a rigorous examination process.
The technology covers a range of applications, and its development follows the European Patent Office’s (EPO) grant of the corresponding invention patent on May 6. Compared with the uses covered by the European patent, the U.S. patent application also includes an application involving the prevention and/or treatment of tumors.
The patent examinations conducted by the European and U.S. authorities assessed the technology against internationally recognized criteria including novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. The approvals mark a significant milestone in the international intellectual-property protection of Tinghua’s proprietary liquor technology.
European patent number: EP4353263 B1
U.S. patent application publication number: US 2024/0252453 A1
The patents represent a new Chinese approach to addressing one of the long-standing challenges facing the global distilled-spirits industry: how to reduce the physiological harm associated with alcohol consumption.
A new approach to alcohol-related physiological stress
Throughout the history of the global alcohol industry, technological development has progressed from traditional fermentation to widespread distillation and, later, large-scale industrial production. Yet the physiological effects associated with alcohol consumption have remained a persistent challenge.
Modern research has shown that alcohol intake can disrupt autonomic nervous-system balance and increase sympathetic nervous-system activity, potentially contributing to oxidative stress, chronic inflammation and cellular damage, as well as metabolic burden and post-drinking discomfort.
For decades, innovation in the alcoholic-beverage industry has largely focused on flavor development, production efficiency and process optimization. A systematic approach centered on the body’s physiological response to alcohol has received comparatively less attention.
Tinghua’s research team has sought to bridge traditional Chinese medical concepts with modern interdisciplinary science. After years of research and development, the team says it has achieved advances in both flavor engineering and the development of a technology framework aimed at reducing the adverse effects associated with alcohol consumption.
The newly granted European and U.S. intellectual-property rights are based on an integrated technological approach combining mechanism-based innovation with advanced processing technologies.
Precision ingredient engineering
At the processing level, Tinghua has developed what it describes as a proprietary targeted ingredient-editing technology. The system combines controlled-strain fermentation, molecular distillation and membrane separation to create a new approach to the reprocessing of aged liquor.
Traditional brewing and distillation processes rely heavily on natural fermentation, making the composition of the final product difficult to precisely control. Tinghua’s technology instead applies modular identification, targeted separation and controlled recombination to thousands of trace compounds in distilled spirits.
The objective is to preserve the characteristic profile and full-bodied flavor of distilled spirits while reducing components associated with undesirable reactions and enriching selected active compounds.
According to the company, the resulting process is intended to integrate three objectives — reducing adverse effects, enhancing potentially beneficial components and improving overall product quality — within a single production system.
Translating traditional Chinese medical concepts into modern science
The technology is also based on an attempt to translate concepts from traditional Chinese medicine into a modern scientific framework.
Traditional Chinese medicine has historically characterized baijiu as “pungent, sweet, intensely hot and highly toxic,” while classical medical texts such as the Huangdi Neijing emphasize balance between yin and yang and the body’s capacity for self-regulation.
Drawing on these concepts together with modern neurophysiology and cell biology, Tinghua researchers developed what they call the Dual Activation Theory.
According to the theory, conventional alcohol consumption primarily stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, potentially placing the body in a state of physiological stress. Tinghua’s approach is designed to modify the composition of distilled spirits so that both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems can be activated in coordination.
The company says this approach is intended to engage the body’s endogenous regulatory and repair mechanisms, including its natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant responses, thereby counteracting some of the cellular damage and metabolic disturbances associated with alcohol exposure.
The ultimate objective is to establish a dynamic balance between alcohol intake and the body’s physiological regulatory mechanisms and, in doing so, mitigate the adverse effects associated with alcohol at the physiological level.
Research findings and external assessments
These findings, according to Tinghua, point toward potential directions for the development of a new generation of alcoholic beverages incorporating health-oriented technological approaches.
Redefining the boundaries of innovation in the spirits industry
Tinghua’s technological developments could expand the scope of innovation in the global spirits sector.
Its targeted ingredient-editing process represents a shift from experience-driven natural fermentation toward data-assisted and precision-designed flavor development. Meanwhile, the company’s Dual Activation framework seeks to introduce physiological regulation as a new dimension in the development of spirits.
The granting of intellectual-property rights in Europe and the United States marks an important step in the international protection of Tinghua’s proprietary technology.
By combining traditional Chinese concepts with modern scientific research and advanced processing technologies, Tinghua aims to develop a new technological pathway for the health-oriented transformation of the global alcoholic-beverage industry.
Media contact
Company Name: Qinghai Spring Medicinal Resources Technology Co., Ltd.
Contact: Jiande Li
Add: 21st Floor, New Hope Building, No. 45, Section 4, Renmin South Road, Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Email: lijiande@verygrass.com
Phone: +86 136 2111 5532
Website: https://www.verygrass.com, https://tinghuajiu.com/
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