Seeking natural antioxidants coming from microalgae to replace BHT in cosmetics and in personal care products

BHT or butyl hydroxytoluene is a fat-soluble synthetic compound that is commonly used to preserve cosmetics to slow down the autoxidation rate of ingredients in a product that can cause changes in the taste or color.

It is well known that BHT is associated with toxic effects on the skin. Various mechanism studies suggested that BHT toxicity is related to an electrophilic metabolite. In a predictive clinical test, 100% BHT was a mild irritant and a moderate sensitizer. In provocative skin tests, BHT (in the 1% to 2% concentration range) produced positive reactions in a small number of patients.

That's why cosmetic companies are looking for natural antioxidants to replace BHT on their products. Until now main focus have been taken on natural antioxidants coming from vegetable extracts as substitutes of BHT but not much attention have been paid to microalgae yet

Microalgae are microscopic algae, typically found in freshwater and marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. They are unicellular species that exist individually or in chains or groups. The biodiversity of microalgae is enormous and they represent an almost untapped resource. It has been estimated that about 200,000-800,000 species in many different genera exist of which about 50,000 species are described. Over 15,000 novel compounds originating from algal biomass have been chemically determined. Most of these microalgae species produce unique products like carotenoids, antioxidants, fatty acids, enzymes, polymers, peptides, toxins, and sterols

Our company, a very well known European multinational company in the field of ingredients for the cosmetic and personal care industry, present in all five continents, is actively looking for academics, startups, companies that have experienceworking with natural antioxidants coming from microalgae that want to partner with us and advance together on its knowledge with the final goal of developing and launching into the market natural microalgae antioxidant to replace the BHT

Our company has a very good understanding, know-how, experience and all the technologies and equipment needed to extract compounds from most of the natural sources like vegetables, spices but also microalgae. If you have something new in microalgae and antioxidants, partnering with us will bring your technology and/or knowledge to the next level.

Requirements

• It is essential that you formulate them if you want to receive suitable proposals At this stage, we do not have any technical requirements. If you have something known in the field of microalgae antioxidants for cosmetics and personal care products, we want to know you. Besides the replacement of BHT, we are also interested in algae species with anti-aging purposes and also microalgae with moisturizing and skin-repairing purposes.

Possible solution areas

• This request is addressed to academics or companies experts in Botanics, specifically in microalgae, and in antioxidants