You can most definitely patent a process... the same way you can patent a drug... pretty much the only way chemists make money. It costs a lot of time and money to research a method, or a process, on how to make or extract a compound, or drug, and if you do that, you are entitled to monies from whoever wishes to copy said formula. It's pretty much the basis of the entire biotech industry so I don't know why I need to explain this. Fact is they have a cost effective and efficient process to derive these compounds at high purity which are widely used and sought after. There there is a growing demand not only as a skin product, but as a way to help lower cholesterol. The preliminary trials for that are looking very positive, and once published, there is then access to a industry which is worth billions. Aveeno is a company which already purchases from Ceapro.. it's the active ingredient in their products, so yeah I've checked them out. 100 years of MD's concentrated in one drop. Nice.