# Caricol ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 2003 | | Origin | Austria | | Headquarters | Grub (seat: Wienerwald), Lower Austria | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Vienna, Austria (production), Sri Lanka (processing of the papayas on site) | | Distribution | Pharmacy | | Website | https://caricol.com/ | Caricol is an Austrian brand of papaya-based products, best known for a digestive dietary supplement made from ripe papaya fruit. The range has since grown to include a stomach preparation, a children's version and a topical skin balm, Caricol-Derma Sensitiv, which is the brand's only skincare product. According to the company, the original recipe comes from a Buddhist monastery in Hawaii, where its founder, the former advertising executive Franz Brenner, encountered it while recovering from burnout. The operating company, Caricol - Digestive & Immune Health GmbH, was entered in the Austrian commercial register in December 2003 [13], and the Austrian trade promotion body Advantage Austria describes it as founded in Austria that year and as a developer and producer of dietary foods and natural food supplements for digestive and immune health [12]. The products are sold mainly through pharmacies and online. ## Origin & founders Caricol's founding story is told in Franz Brenner's own words on the company website. Before the brand existed, he says, he worked in advertising and held stakes and roles in 15 companies. After a burnout, a Buddhist master advised him to spend a year at a monastery in Hawaii. He followed the advice despite early doubts, saying he was exhausted and wanted nothing more to do with business. At the Lotus Buddhist Monastery on Hawaii's Big Island, the company relates, the residents grew organic fruit and vegetables on their own grounds and cooked healthy food for visitors following Buddhist tradition. Over the years a number of recipes were developed there, mainly for the stomach, the gut and the skin. One of them was a papaya extract that the monastery's master, Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim, had served daily after meals, calling it a balm for the gut. The brand names her as the inventor of Caricol and describes the extract as a means of strengthening what she called the centre of human health: digestion [8]. Brenner says he was regularly given the preparation during his stay and was struck by its energising effect. Back home, starting again from scratch, he decided he wanted to work in health. With the master's consent, he founded Caricol to make the monastery's papaya recipe available to other people [7]. The company also credits Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim with developing the two later preparations, Caricol-Gastro for the stomach and Caricol-Derma for the skin. The brand says the original papaya extract is now valued by many people across Europe for its effect on digestion. ## History & milestones Two dates compete for the start of the brand, though they describe different events. The Austrian commercial register records the limited company's entry on 20 December 2003, with its seat in the Wienerwald municipality and an address in Grub, Lower Austria [13]. Its registered line of business is general trade in goods. The brand's own account gives no founding year; instead, Brenner's statement, dated 2017, says Caricol has been available in Austria since 2004 and is now sold in 15 further countries [7]. This article follows the register date for the company's founding and treats 2004 as the year the product reached the Austrian market. The company's address is also given differently in different places. The register and the Advantage Austria profile place it in Grub, Lower Austria, while the imprint on caricol.com names Caricol Inc. at an address in Hilo, Hawaii [10]. No public source explains how the Austrian company and the Hawaiian entity relate to each other. A later step concerned the raw material. Since 2012, the company says, it has been able to process ripe papayas directly in Sri Lanka, with support from the Austrian Development Agency, the country's development cooperation agency. Caricol describes this as a milestone toward its aim of using only tree-ripened organic papayas [9]. ## Ownership Caricol is a privately held Austrian limited company. No parent company is documented. The Graz-based Institut AllergoSan, a company founded in 1991 and known for its OMNi-BiOTiC probiotic range, presents Caricol among its own product lines and lists the full range on its website [3]. AllergoSan's pages do not describe it as Caricol's owner, and no acquisition of the brand has been reported. ## Philosophy & positioning Caricol frames its business around a Buddhist-influenced philosophy. The company says the intention behind the products is to help people feel content and happy, and that this extends beyond consumers to everyone involved in making them. Its stated aim is that every person in the chain, from inventor and farmer to processor, bottler, sales staff and pharmacist, should be paid fairly for their work. On the product side, the brand presents its preparations as monastery recipes. It says Caricol and its oat-based products rely on preparation methods known from traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic dietetics, in which a long heating process transforms some substances and releases others. The website groups its values under four headings: fair business, organic and tree-ripened fruit, 100 percent natural ingredients, and the monastery recipe. Its tagline is "For your daily smile", and the website also features a Caricol television advertisement. ## Products & innovation The flagship product, simply called Caricol, is a dietary supplement sold in stick packs and made from fully ripe papaya fruit. According to the product description, it consists of 100 percent natural organic-quality ingredients and is free of animal protein, gluten, yeast, soy and lactose [4]. Production is based on what the company calls a patented preparation process for "energising" the papaya fruit, carried out in Vienna under EU organic rules. The same description states that this process makes the activity of papain, the fruit's protein-digesting enzyme, four times higher than in raw papaya purée. In his 2017 statement, Brenner wrote that years of studies had since confirmed Caricol as a remedy for constipation, bloating and other digestive complaints; the company does not name these studies. Three further products extend the line. Caricol-Gastro combines papaya and oat and is presented as support for the stomach lining. Caricol Kids is a version for children, described by the brand as gentle and natural. Caricol-Derma Sensitiv is the brand's skincare product. Caricol describes it as a medical skin-care product based on a patented process for preparing organic oat, combined with Caricol's organic papaya extract. Its listed key ingredients are organic papaya extract, organic oat, organic coconut oil and neem leaf extract. The company says the balm is free of parabens and synthetic colourants and fragrances, and that it has been dermatologically tested [11]. It further states that several observational studies in people showed the balm's effect on atopic skin and its good tolerance on skin and mucous membranes in the external intimate area, and that laboratory tests indicated anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. These studies are described by the brand; no independent publication of them is documented. ## Sustainability Sourcing is a central part of how Caricol presents itself. The papayas come from Sri Lanka, which the company says it chose for three reasons, among them that the country has declared itself free of genetically modified crops and that the fruit is certified organic under EU, US and Japanese rules. No certifying body is named. The company also says it pays Sri Lankan papaya farmers prices above the usual market rate [9]. Processing of the fruit takes place on site in Sri Lanka, a step the company links to the support it has received from the Austrian Development Agency since 2012. Final production of the supplement takes place in Vienna. No third-party sustainability or fair-trade certifications are documented. ## Current status Caricol is active. Its company continued to file annual accounts with the Austrian commercial register, most recently in September 2025 [13], and the Caricol range remains listed on Institut AllergoSan's website in 2026. The brand describes its products as available in pharmacies and online. No new product launches or press coverage from the past year are documented. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 2003 | Caricol - Digestive & Immune Health GmbH entered in the Austrian commercial register (Firmenbuch 242637w), seat Wienerwald. | https://www.evi.gv.at/f/242637w | | 2004 | Caricol on sale in Austria (brand statement: 'Seit 2004 gibt es Caricol in Österreich'). | https://caricol.com/am-anfang-war-das-ende/ | | 2012 | With support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), ripe papayas begin to be processed on site in Sri Lanka. | https://caricol.com/faire-geschaefte/ | | 2017 | Founder statement dated 2017 says Caricol is sold in Austria and 15 further countries. | https://caricol.com/am-anfang-war-das-ende/ | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Caricol (papaya stick packs, dietary supplement)** — Caricol® ist ein rein natürliches Produkt, das aus vollreifen Papayafrüchten hergestellt wird. — https://www.allergosan.com/de/produkte/caricol/ - **Caricol-Derma Sensitiv** — Natürliche Hautpflege sus Bio-Caricol, Bio-Hafer, Bio-Kokosöl und Niemblätter-Extrakt — https://caricol.com/ - **Caricol-Gastro** — Unterstützung für die Magenschleimhaut mit der Kraft von Papaya und Hafer — https://caricol.com/ - **Caricol Kids** — Sanft. Natürlich. Kindgerecht. — https://caricol.com/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Organic papaya extract (Bio-Caricol) · Organic oat (Bio-Hafer) · Organic coconut oil (Bio-Kokosöl) · Neem leaf extract (Niemblätter-Extrakt) Source: https://caricol.com/caricol-derma/ ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - Patented papaya preparation process (patentiertes Zubereitungsverfahren) — https://www.allergosan.com/de/produkte/caricol/ ## Sources 3. (T2) https://www.allergosan.com/de/unsere-produkte/caricol/ 4. (T2) https://www.allergosan.com/de/produkte/caricol/ 7. (T2) https://caricol.com/am-anfang-war-das-ende/ 8. (T2) https://caricol.com/das-rezept-aus-dem-kloster/ 9. (T2) https://caricol.com/faire-geschaefte/ 10. (T2) https://caricol.com/impressum/ 11. (T2) https://caricol.com/caricol-derma/ 12. (T4) https://www.advantageaustria.org/us/company/en/caricol-digestive-immune-health-gmbh 13. (T4) https://www.evi.gv.at/f/242637w --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-13 Please cite with a link to the article URL.