Within the magnificence and private care market, the demand for pure elements is insatiable. It stems from the overwhelming perception that pure elements are all the time superior to artificial ones.
Regardless of which aspect of the fence you sit on, there’s one truth we can’t ignore – pure elements aren’t all the time probably the most environmentally accountable choice.
“We wish naturals, however we’re killing nature within the course of,” mentioned Peyman Salehian, CEO of Allozymes, a Singapore-based biotechnology agency.
Chatting with CosmeticsDesign-Asia, Salehian expressed his shock upon studying that it takes 10 tonnes of tomato pores and skin to extract three kilograms of phytoene.
“The query for cosmetics right this moment is: how a lot sources are wanted to shift every little thing from synthetics to naturals? The reply is that it’s undoubtedly not doable. When you needed to do it, you would want land that’s 70 occasions greater than the earth itself. Even then, it could be higher to make use of these supplies for meals moderately than a beauty ingredient.”
This has led corporations to “copy and paste” what they discover in nature utilizing a bioreactor. Nonetheless, this expertise is expensive and gradual, Salehian continued. “It takes years and 90% of the time it fails.”
Salehian co-founded Allozymes in 2019 with the intention of creating pure elements in a extra planet-responsible method, whereas additionally lowering price and time. The corporate’s is in a position to take action utilizing its proprietary microfluidics expertise.
“We’ve got 200 occasions greater probability of success in comparison with the present expertise. So consequently, the engineering time is far shorter. So moderately than years, it usually takes two months for us to engineer one enzyme,” mentioned Salehian.
To clarify it plainly, this expertise permits the corporate to review and sieve out the fitting enzymes by utilizing tiny water droplets as vessels so it could possibly transfer by means of the {hardware}.
“As an alternative of placing [the enzyme] on a petri dish or a 96 nicely plate, you place it in a tiny droplet. Then these tiny droplets transfer by means of a channel and involves our {hardware} which injects a substrate – sugar – contained in the droplet and right here the response occurs and the product is produced inside a droplet.”
Utilizing its proprietary software program, the corporate is ready to display and sift by means of the enzymes and discover what it’s on the lookout for. “With this, we display 10 million enzyme variants per day,” mentioned Salehian.
The advantages of this expertise are super. Firstly, with water droplets as a vessel, the corporate doesn’t require using instruments like petri dishes or 96 nicely plates. Secondly, it doesn’t require a number of substrates as it’s working with tiny droplets.
Going again to the instance of extracting elements from tomato skins, Salehian mentioned this expertise was in a position to produce 2,000 occasions greater than typical extraction. In consequence, the corporate is ready to produce phytoene at a a lot decrease price.
“The price of the ingredient can also be diminished tremendously which implies it may be used for a lot of purposes. It does not matter really that the ingredient is extra premium, we will scale back the fee for that and it may be used for a lot of issues.”
For instance, phytoene, is utilized in anti-ageing lotions and as a complement. Nonetheless, it believes that the ingredient has a number of potential as a pure sunscreen.
“It’s not used as a result of its very costly, so now we’re opening up many doorways for this materials,” mentioned Salehian.
One other beauty ingredient within the agency’s portfolio is bisabolol, which is conventionally extremely unsustainable to provide or extract from the endangered candeia tree.
The corporate is within the midst of its Collection A funding spherical that’s set to shut by the tip of this yr. With an injection of funds, the corporate is planning to develop its enterprise globally. It already has a presence in Australia and the US and its subsequent goal is Europe.
