Polymers in Personal Care

By: Eric Abrutyn, TPC2 Advisors Ltd., Inc.

Posted: June 28, 2010, from the July 2010 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.

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Homopolysaccharides contain a single type of monosaccharide, with examples being starch (two types of glucose units) and cellulose (glucose units linked through a B(1-4) glycosidic linkage).

Heteropolysaccharides are composed of different types of monosaccharides or their derivatives and are found both in terrestrial and oceanic plants such as gums and natural polymers and the animal kingdom, including chitin and a large group of complex polysaccharides that are chemically bound to proteins; e.g. hyaluronic acid and biosaccharide-X;

• Peptides are named based on the number of repeating units of amino acid residues. In the material name, the amino acids are listed in alphabetical order. If the sequence is the same as a human peptide, however, there are special rules to communicate to the consumer that the material is the same or a replicate of a human gene sequence.

These include: a) When the peptide consists of two to ten amino acid residues and is named using the appropriate prefix di-, tri-, tetra-, etc., followed by the term peptide and an arbitrary number; e.g. dipeptide-2; b) When the peptide consists of 11 to 100 amino acids and is designated by the term oligopeptide followed by an arbitrary number, such as oligipeptide-X; and c) When the peptide consists of more than 100 amino acids and is designated by the term polypeptide followed by an arbitrary number; e.g. polypeptide-X.

• Human sourced ingredients are defined from the original source of components or genes. These include recombinant or replicated DNA fragments and are named by rh-, representing recombinant human sources or sh-, representing synthetic human sources. Examples are: rh-polypeptide-1, a single chain recombinant human peptide produced by fermentation; and sh-octapeptide-X, a recombinant human peptide produced synthetically to be identical to the naturally occurring protein.

Siloxane chemistry: This classification is broken down into many different sub-classifications but the common denominator is the silicon-oxygen- silicon structure, where there are one or two methyl groups on each silicon molecule that are terminated with a tri-functional group.

Sub-categories include: silanes, non-polymeric organo-substituted silicon compounds; cyclic polysiloxanes, representing species containing three to seven siloxane units, e.g. cyclopentasiloxane; linear polysiloxanes, named as derivatives of methicone or dimethicone and trimethylsiloxy end-blocked; e.g. dimethicone and amino bispropyl dimethicone; silsesquioxanes and silicates, e.g. acrylates/polytrimethylsiloxymethacrylate copolymer; and polysilicone followed by an arbitrary number, which is used to describe complex silicone polymers that cannot be named by common names or established conventions for silicone compounds; e.g. polysilicone-1 and polysilicone-11.