Demand for natural ingredients with preservative effect in cosmetic formulations
Recent trends in the cosmetics market are centred around vegan, natural, and value consumption. Due to this trend, companies are gradually focusing on developing products with all natural ingredients, and as a result, the need for natural preservative substitutes that can be universally applied to various dosage forms is gradually increasing. In order to use natural materials as a cosmetic preservative system, safety, efficacy, pH and temperature stability are required. However, natural materials have disadvantages such as low preservative efficacy due to low indicator ingredient content and difficulty in securing stability within the formulation due to being greatly affected by pH and temperature. For this reason, commercialisation of natural preservative substitutes is difficult.
The preservative effect of hinoki tree proven over many years
Focusing on the above problems, ACTIVON extracted indicator substance from hinoki cypress trees and verified its effectiveness as a preservative substitute for cosmetics. Hinokitiol (β-thujaplicin) is an important component of the oil extracted from hinoki-tree(Chamaecyparis obtuse, hinoki cypress), which prevents the decay and decomposition of temple and shrine buildings in Japan. It is multifunctional ingredient used in various fields due to its anti-inflammatory effect, anti-aging and whitening effect.
Evaluation of Activonol Green-Hinocare as preservative system
When checking the preservative efficacy by applying 1.0 to 1.5% of a natural preservative substitute containing Hinokitiol obtained from the cypress tree to the skin care formulation, it showed an excellent preservative effect under a wide range of pH conditions. In addition, the antibacterial effect of Hinokitiol was confirmed through MIC test and Checkerboard assay, and through formulation stability test and single patch test, Activonol Green-Hinocare was proven to be a cosmetic ingredient that is stable within the formulation and safe for human skin. Through this, the possibility of using Activonol Green-Hinocare as a natural preservative substitute for cosmetics was confirmed.
Efficacy and Applications of Activonol Green-Hinocare
Environmentally friendly manufacturing process
Honoki cypress (Thujopsis dolabrata) wood chips, which are discarded in construction and furniture manufacturing, were upcycled and used to make hinokitiol powder. Activonol Green-Hinocare will be showcased in the Innovation Zone of the in-cosmetics Global 2024 which will be held at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from 16 th to 18 th April 2024, and can also be found at the ACTIVON stand (2F50).
