THE SCIENCE OF YASTYCHNAYA
Classic caviar is sieved. The eggs are rubbed through a mesh and everything around them is left behind. Yastychnaya keeps the whole yastyk: the eggs, the fine tissue that holds them and their layers of fat.
We have measured what that difference means, protein by protein and lipid by lipid, against commercial caviar.
MORE THAN THE ROE
Sieved caviar is egg. The yastyk adds a second tissue: the follicle wall that holds each egg, its collagen matrix and basement membrane, and a lipid profile far richer in sphingolipids. Our yastyk extracts contain the egg components of caviar, plus these.
THE LIPIDS: RICHER IN SPHINGOLIPIDS
Sphingomyelin. About 15% of the lipid signal in our yastyk extracts, against 4 to 6% in caviar (3.1×). Sphingomyelin is the natural precursor the skin converts into ceramides.
Phytosphingosine-type sphingolipids. 8.2× the caviar level.
Omega-3 lysophospholipid. Lysophosphatidylcholine carrying DHA and EPA, at 5× the caviar level.
Unique to the yastyk. Nine sphingomyelin species found in our extracts and in none of the caviars tested.
To be fair to the roe: whole caviar carries more polyunsaturated phospholipid, so for omega-3 quantity alone the roe is richer. Part of the lysophospholipid in our extracts forms during gentle enzymatic processing.
THE PROTEINS: THE OVARIAN MATRIX
In our yastyk extracts, follicle-wall and collagen-matrix proteins make up 5.2 to 5.5% of the protein signal. In commercial caviar they are 0.1 to 0.2%. The matrix is led by collagens VI, IV, XII and XXVIII with lumican, decorin, nidogen and fibrillin, the same family of molecules that gives skin its structure. The egg is still there: egg-yolk proteins sit at a similar share to caviar.
WHAT THIS MEANS, AND WHAT IT DOESN’T
These are measured differences in composition. They show that our extracts are caviar of the whole yastyk, not the eggs alone. Published research on sphingomyelin, collagen peptides and proteoglycans points to roles in the skin barrier and in hydration, but that work used other sources. We have not yet tested the yastyk material itself for these benefits. When we do, we will publish the results here, whatever they show.
Our caviar oil tells a different part of the story. Refining removes the proteins and polar lipids, so the oil is the yastyk’s fat layer, the part yastychnaya caviar always kept: oleic-rich and made by our patented process.
THE PATENT
Our caviar oil is made by a process patented in Europe (EP 3 291 682), the United States (US 11,197,490) and Japan (JP 6496972). The patents protect the process and the oil. They do not cover our protein extracts.
TESTED LOT BY LOT
Every lot is released only after an accredited laboratory has tested it: fatty-acid profile and freshness for the oil and pearls, microbiology for the extracts and pearls, and heavy metals and arsenic for all products. Each certificate is linked to the farm and processing lot numbers.
REFERENCES
1. Grunow, Dietrich, Di Leonardo, Pšenička & Benning (2026). Cosmetics 13, 105.
2. FAO (2004). Fisheries Circular No. 990, Box 1, p. 16: yastychnaya (jastichnaja) caviar.
3. GOST 32003-2012. Ovary caviar of sturgeons: specifications. In force in Russia from 1 January 2014.
4. Kodzik et al. (2024). Sturgeon egg and ovarian-fluid proteomes, supplementary tables S2 and S6.
5. Breiden & Sandhoff (2014). Sphingolipid metabolism in the cutaneous permeability barrier. Biochim Biophys Acta. PMID 23954553.
6. Nădăban et al. (2023). Phytosphingosine-type ceramides and the skin barrier. PMID 37301511.
7. Sun et al. (2022). Meta-analysis of oral supplements and skin hydration. PMID 35719159.
8. Bai et al. (2025). Salmon cartilage proteoglycan and skin condition, randomised placebo-controlled trial. PMID 40613544.
9. Caviar Biotec analysis data, 2021 to 2026: lipid profiling of four commercial caviars and two yastyk extracts (829 lipid species); protein profiling of 11 commercial caviars and our yastyk extracts. Available to trade partners on request.
References 5 to 8 describe the molecules in general. They did not test Caviar Clinic products.