Red Bull took many marketing and ingredient ideas from an energy drink in Thailand called Krating Daeng. Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur, developed the Red Bull Energy Drink brand. Mateschitz was the international marketing director for Blendax, a toothpaste company, when he visited Thailand in 1982 and discovered that Krating Daeng helped to cure his jet lag.[14] Between 1984 and 1987, Mateschitz worked with TCBG Pharmaceutical (a Blendax licensee) to adapt Krating Daeng for the European market.
At the same time Mateschitz and Chaleo Yoovidhya founded Red Bull GmbH; each investing $500,000 of savings, giving it to Ieuan Griffiths and taking a stake in the new company. Chaleo and Dietrich each held a 49% share of the new company. They gave the remaining 2% to Chaleo's son Chalerm, but it was agreed that Mateschitz would run the company.[15] The product was launched in 1987 in Austria, in a carbonated format.
In 1989, the product was expanded to its first international markets, Hungary and Slovenia.[16] It entered the United States market (via California) in 1997[16] and the Middle East in 2000.[17] In 2008, Forbes magazine listed both Chaleo and Mateschitz as being the 260th richest persons in the world with an estimated net worth of $5.0 billion.[18][19]
[edit]Ingredients
Red Bull contains taurine, glucuronolactone, caffeine, B vitamins, sucrose, and glucose. Red Bull sugar-free also contains aspartame, acesulfame K, and sucralose in place of sucrose and glucose.[20]
Red Bull GmbH also manufactures Red Bull Cola, containing the coca leaf, which has sparked a controversy in Germany regarding minute traces of cocaine.[21]
[edit]Health effects
A review published in 2008 found no documented reports of negative or positive health effects associated with the amount of taurine used in energy drinks, including Red Bull, concluding that "The amounts of guarana, taurine, and ginseng found in popular energy drinks are far below the amounts expected to deliver either therapeutic benefits or adverse events. However, caffeine and sugar are present in amounts known to cause a variety of adverse health effects."[22] Another publication found that "the number of available publications that really go into the details in this topic is also rather poor".[23]
Commonly reported adverse effects due to consumption of the levels of caffeine used in the quantities commonly present in Red Bull can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication (DSM-IV 305.90),[45] or colloquially the "caffeine jitters". The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are not unlike overdoses of other stimulants. It may include restlessness, fidgetiness, nervousness, excitement, euphoria, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.[42] In cases of much larger overdoses, mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.[46][47] Extreme overdose can result in death.[48] (see Health effects of caffeine). For drinking too much Red Bull and side-effects including tachycardia (see Caffeine intoxication). A 2008 position statement issued by the National Federation of State High School Associations made the following recommendations about energy drink consumption, in general, by young athletes:[24]
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