Replace cosmetic additives? Plant fermentation technology has come

Recently, at a seminar in the cosmetics industry, three experts from the academia, technology development, and raw material production fields discussed the "plant fermentation technology" and analyzed the current status of plant fermentation technology from the perspective of technology and production pain points. And prospects.


Plant fermentation
While ensuring the efficacy, make the product safer

Compared with traditional "fine chemical additives" skin care products, what are the advantages of using plant fermentation technology to produce skin care products?

Wang Changtao, a professor and PhD supervisor of the Department of Cosmetics at Beijing Technology and Business University, analyzed that traditional skin care products are composed of only two components, one is a core functional component, and the other is a surfactant, preservative, flavor, thickener, active agent and other additives. . Plant fermentation technology is to keep the core functional ingredients while reducing additive ingredients and replacing part of the preservatives, so as to increase the proportion of plant effective raw materials. Therefore, compared with traditional cosmetics, the advantages of plant-fermented cosmetics are: while ensuring efficacy, there are fewer or no harmful ingredients, and its products are safer and non-irritating. Wang Changtao said that the ultimate goal of plant fermentation technology is to completely replace other additives including preservatives with plant raw materials.

Not only theoretical research, plant fermentation has been able to replace preservatives and other additives in actual cosmetics R&D and production. Senior active ingredient expert Mei Hexiang said that in plant fermentation technology, the use of certain plant raw materials' bacteriostatic function and microbial hair to carry out plant fermentation can achieve the plant material's own antiseptic function in cosmetics, which is what the industry calls Cosmetics "self-preservation" function.

In addition to replacing preservatives, at present, plant fermentation technology and its ingredients can already replace traditional fine chemical ingredients such as pigments, flavors, thickeners and so on. For example, on the issue of the separation of plant raw material pigments, Wang Changtao said that many plant raw materials exhibit yellow, black and other colors, which does not meet the consumer's perception when using cosmetics. Therefore, in plant fermentation technology, yellow can be used Microorganisms with strong active ingredients such as Aspergillus decompose pigments, then use active yeast to adsorb pigments, and then use lactic acid bacteria to transform pigments, which can form a product appearance that is not different from traditional additive cosmetics.

Similar to the above principle, Zhang Lei, R&D Director of Tianjin Shangmei Cosmetics Co., Ltd. explained that plant fermentation technology uses some specific microorganisms to specifically convert and decompose certain toxin components and heavy metal components in plant raw materials, making plants The toxic components in the raw materials are reduced or even disappeared. Therefore, the use of plant fermentation technology can reduce the irritation of the raw materials on the skin and better ensure the safety of cosmetics.

High production cost
The industry has not yet achieved mass production

Although technically, plant fermentation can replace additives such as preservatives, but currently, its technical cost is still high. Taking plant antiseptic technology as an example, Zhang Lei said that the current production cost of plant antiseptics is still very high. The production of plant fermentation products in the industry is limited to the customized mass production of cosmetic companies.

Mei Hexiang explained that at present, fermented materials and fermentation technology are already available in plant antiseptic technology, but the conversion rate of anticorrosion of plant raw materials is not high. Therefore, a large amount of raw materials and costs are required to achieve antiseptic effect.

At the same time, Zhang Lei introduced that due to the particularity of plant fermentation raw materials, vacuum packaging should be used as much as possible in the selection of cosmetic packaging materials. The current water cream and other products basically use traditional open design products, which easily lead to multiple pollution of cosmetics and the production of microorganisms, which makes the plant preservatives "unstoppable." Subject to the particularity of packaging materials, the cost of packaging materials for plant preservatives is also relatively high.

Therefore, the product application of plant fermentation technology is still limited to small-scale and customized production. Except for a few categories such as facial masks, the full category and large-scale mass production of plant fermentation technology have not yet been rolled out. Zhang Lei also revealed that the plant fermentation technology is limited to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of plant fermentation active ingredients and efficacy experiments, as well as the selection of containers that meet the cosmetics industry standards.


Under policy blessing
Future of plant fermentation

Wang Changtao said that the concepts of plants and herbs are rooted in Chinese traditional culture and have a profound market recognition foundation. Combined with modern fermentation, separation, extraction and other technologies, plant fermentation cosmetics can match or even exceed the cosmetics produced by the traditional fine chemical industry in terms of cultural concept, product efficacy, and safety. Therefore, Wang Changtao believes that plant fermentation technology can realize real scientific research innovation, rather than market concept innovation, "plant fermentation can realize the path of real natural cosmetics with our Chinese characteristics."

From the perspective of upstream research and development, Zhang Lei said that plant fermentation technology can not only enhance the efficacy of plant raw materials, but also reduce the toxic and side effects of raw materials under the premise of ensuring the natural, green and safe cosmetics. However, in the field of research and development, plant fermentation is still a new exploration. During the fermentation process, the mechanism of action between plants and microorganisms is not yet clear, and some analytical methods are needed to combine theory and technology to provide a follow-up efficacy experiment for cosmetics. Provide support. Zhang Lei also believes that in the long run, the research and development of plant fermentation cosmetics will be a trend in the future cosmetics market.

Mei Hexiang said that international natural and green has become the trend of cosmetics production, and domestic consumers pay more and more attention to efficacy, ingredients and safety. Therefore, Mei Hexiang is very optimistic about the future of plant fermentation technology. At the same time, Mei Hexiang said that plant fermentation technology should also establish relevant access standards as soon as possible, "I hope that the corresponding units and enterprises will unite to establish industry standards for plant-based fermentation products. If there is a specific standard and consensus, it will be more conducive to Market and consumer acceptance."

It is worth mentioning that Article 9 of the “Cosmetic Supervision and Administration Regulations” recently released also specifically mentioned: “The state encourages and supports the use of modern science and technology, combined with China’s traditional superior projects and special plant resources to develop cosmetics.” This is undoubtedly The policy environment has given "plant fermentation" a broader space for exploration and development.