03.25.13
Ashland Care Specialties, a business unit of Ashland Specialty Ingredients, recently debuted Skin’s Ecology, an initiative in support of new products that help normalize microflora on the surface of skin. The skin’s natural probiotic defenses are supported by antimicrobial peptides and are essential in the skin’s ongoing fight against undesirable microorganisms. Ashland will show how a biofunctional ingredient based on flax seed may be used to support cathelicidin and β-defensin antimicrobial peptides, an important class of biological peptides necessary to maintain a proper ecosystem balance on skin, noted the company.
“Probiotics are consumed by millions of people every day to help balance the body’s inner microflora.Likewise, it may be possible to enhance the natural microbiome and biochemical shield on the surface of skin with a topical cream containing Lipigenine biofunctional,” said Justine Cotton, marketing manager, skin care biofunctionals, Ashland Care Specialties. “Inspiration for our biofunctional derived from flax seed comes from the process pertaining to skin’s own lipid production in the stratum corneum, which goes beyond a physical barrier function to include a biochemical shield against the proliferation of undesirable microorganisms.”
The Skin’s Ecology initiative brings together biologists from Ashland’s skin research together with formulation and consumer science professionals to help skin care product makers commercialize new innovations that address the microflora ecology on the skin surface.
For more information about the Skin’s Ecology initiative, contact Justine Cotton (jcotton@ashland.com).