In the search for new, natural-based materials biotechnology has a key role to play. Fermentation in particular is being used to create alternatives to traditonal synthetic materials, as Barbara Brockway reports
The cosmetics and toiletries market is very competitive and needs new materials. While most of the market is slow, certain areas, such as anti-ageing, continue to grow steadily. It seems the so-called baby boomers are not particularly keen on seeing their grandmothers when they look in the mirror so are searching, sometimes desperately, for products that really work. Ageing celebrities like Cher, Madonna and Tina Turner have helped fuel their expectations, and established companies, along with a constant trickle of new brands, are fighting to win in this lucrative business. So it is therefore especially important to continue to develop better performing materials to address anti-ageing and all other aspects of personal care. The rate of new product launches is driven by the fast moving beauty industry's need to be special and to have the best, and dare I say because the customer is worth it! New products need new hero actives so the race to develop better and better materials is predicted to continue, despite fears of a worldwide recession and the dampening constraints of new regulations and the desire for only natural products.
Wanting products to be 100% natural presents formulators with a problem because arguably the greatest advances have come about through the clever and creative use of new materials and technologies. In this case new often means synthetic. Although there is no clear consensus among the different brands as to what materials are and are not acceptable in natural formulas, there are strong, recurring themes. How many times will formulators receive a brief this year that require ‘no synthetics, no parabens’ and perhaps even ‘no preservatives’? As a result, many of the most useful materials cannot be included in the next generation of the more natural products. The pressure to develop better performing products remains but formulators are now expected to create them with limited resources. In some cases it is hard to make natural personal care products that reach current expectations let alone be more advanced.
The long-term success of a product depends on its performance. Obviously, commercial success comes down to consumer choice and consumers can be strongly influenced by many other factors such as how the products are presented and priced, plus imponderables such as loyalty to brands. Amongst the strongest influences are advertising and publicity. This was nicely illustrated last year by the unprecedented sales of Boots' No 7 Protect & Perfect face serum following a well publicised TV programme on skin care products. Experience shows that these influences soon wear off and long-term success is awarded to the products that perform consistently well. Interestingly, the success of Protect & Perfect illustrates something more than just the effect of good publicity. It shows that consumers are really prepared to go to great lengths to obtain products that perform. Those baby boomers really are desperate not to look like their grandparents.
THE SHOCK OF THE NEW
The race to develop the most potent actives has had suppliers trawling far and wide, and they've plundered all the scientific disciplines from botany through pharmacy to synthetic chemistry and even particle physics. At one American meeting, dark matter was presented as a potential active. Another company offers, more realistically, a fine meteorite powder that can give an extraterrestrial touch to products designed for exfoliation. But the largest advances have been through synthesizing new molecules. Detergents, silicones and ethoxylated polymers all outperform the soaps, oils and waxes that they were designed to replace. The freedom to continue designing new chemicals is being seriously threatened by two new influences, both stemming from our realisation that humans are spoiling their own environment.
First there are the regulations designed to lessen the negative impact of chemicals on the environment. Suppliers are doing their best to prepare for REACH but questions like ‘how easy will it be to register new materials with REACH once pre-registration has closed?’ are being discussed openly. Secondly there is the growing desire among consumers for products to be natural, to have a low carbon footprint, be non-animal derived, be made from sustainable, ethical sources, be free from all things synthetic and be free from parabens and other well known tried and trusted preservatives. This is no longer a niche market owned by companies such as Neal's Yard Therapies and a variety of smaller entrepreneurs. Natural is now the mantra of multinationals and major retailers. It's here to stay.
BOOSTED BY BIOTECHNOLOGY
The challenge now is to find natural alternatives to synthetic materials as well as to continue the development of better actives. Biotechnology is one way to achieve both these goals and is already showing signs of success. A surprisingly large number of today's actives are made by fermentation and other types of biotransformations. Molecules such as amino acids, peptides, carbohydrates including thickeners and potent molecules such as hyaluronic acid and dihydroxy acetone (DHA) are being made by biotechnology, and these are often available at more or less the same prices as their animal derived or synthetic counterparts.
Peptides are proving particularly interesting. They can be broadly divided into two classes: those that are used to condition skin, hair and nails and those with a biological activity that can stimulate changes. This second group can be divided again into those peptides that are made by taking the natural amino acids from ferments and lysates and stringing them together in a specific sequence using something like enzymes, and those that require no further modification and can be effectively fished out of the ferment soup, using perhaps cell receptors as the hook.
Collagen hydrolysates are the basis of many prestigious anti-ageing creams. The amino acid sequence (glycine-proline-hydroxyproline) repeats throughout the collagen molecule. This peptide will stimulate cultured fibroblasts to synthesize collagen and also acts as a competitive inhibitor to several of the enzymes responsible for collagen degradation. The result is firmer skin. Despite collagen only coming from animals, this peptide can be non-animal derived when it is made from amino acids derived from fermentation.
Peptides show great promise especially when combined with rapid screening techniques such as cDNA microarray analysis, which will show a peptide's influence on cell metabolism. These tests show if a gene is up or down regulated; ie if a cell is making more or less antioxidants, structural proteins etc. The slower in-vivo tests are essential to prove final efficacy but these are expensive and can take months to complete while the new, rapid techniques allow hundreds of actives to be screened for activity in just a few hours.
Fermentation is being used to create alternatives to synthetic materials. The exquisite feel of silicones cannot yet be completely reproduced naturally but there are some very good contenders. Grasses with naturally high levels of silica are being fermented into new natural materials with slip and cushion that might one day rival silicones and in the hands of the best formulators are already being used successfully to replace silicones. The consumer's desire to keep in harmony with the environment has made bioconversions of waste products especially attractive. Cereal straw, which is a problem by-product of the food industry, is being skillfully biotransformed into emulsifiers that are 100% natural. Natural surfactants, the alkyl polyglucosides (APGs) and their esters (APEs) are available, although the low price paid for SLES has made it hard for them to make deep inroads into the market. Unlike synthetic surfactants they cannot be thickened by salt. However, natural polysaccharides such as rhizobian gum are being used to make products that are close to conventional shower gels, liquid soaps and shampoos. The willingness to pay more for all things natural means that now is the right time to revisit the alkyl polyglycoside family.
PRINCIPLES OF FERMENTATION
Biotechnology can be used to produce a near infinite number of natural actives. A single substrate can be made into a variety of very different materials simply by varying the conditions or the microbes/
enzymes used. The easiest analogy is how we traditionally turn grape juice to wine and wine into vinegar. The three products all come from grapes but are all very different. Wine connoisseurs are the grandfathers of biotechnology. They know only too well how subtle changes can influence quality. Biotechnologists take this one step further and keep their processes under very tight control so they effectively iron out the natural variations that plague conventional botanical extracts.
Fermentation products from grape, grain, green tea leaves and soybeans are well known, but what is less well known is that the origin of chocolate's very pleasing taste begins with an uncontrolled fermentation that takes place traditionally on the forest floor. Also, under carefully controlled conditions, Lactobacillus species will further transform cocoa extracts into ferments with increased levels of xanthine derivatives (theobromine, theophyline and caffeine). Xanthine derivatives have been shown to facilitate the breakdown of cellular storage fats by inhibiting phosphodiesterases and so are being used topically for anti-cellulite products. Far from causing obesity and bad skin, cocoa can be the source of the natural actives needed to combat these problems. Cocoa and chocolate have bad reputations that are most unfair and need addressing.
Fermented hot capsicum extracts are no longer hot but will still give skin a healthy glow. This ferment increases the local blood flow and so can be used to boost the positive effects of actives that are enhanced by something like massage. Increased blood flow means metabolites are more rapidly removed from tissue so it is not hard to see why capsicum ferments are being used more and more in anti-cellulite products.
There is an ever growing list of botanicals being fermented into more efficacious actives. New natural materials are also being derived from fermented marine organisms following in the tradition of the fermented sea kelp used in the miracle broth developed for Crème de la Mer. Sometimes the improved efficacy is simply as a result of removing inert materials, so effectively increasing the proportion of active materials. More commonly the activity is due to newly identifiable activities in the ferment. Rapeseed oil for example, can be made into an effective antioxidant/anti-inflammatory when it is transformed by Candida bombicola and the new lipids have been characterised.
As everybody in the industry knows, winning products owe their existence to an often uneasy coalition between the needs of business, the arts and the sciences. Now we have to add one more factor - the influence of the significant number of consumers who care about how these products impact the environment. Biotechnology is one approach that can lead to winning products that can satisfy all parties.
Author
Barbara Brockway
Technical advisor, IMCD, UK
e-mail barbara.brockway@IMCD.co.uk