Β-(1,3) glucans for treating skin and ulcers: Biotec Pharmacon describes methods of skin and ulcer treatment and use of water-soluble β-(1,3) glucans as active agents for producing therapeutic skin treatment agents.1 A method of treating an ulcer comprises applying to the ulcer a preparation comprising a water-soluble β-(1,3) glucan with β-(1,6) linked side-chains, where the side-chains comprise β-(1,3) linkages or up to four consecutive β-(1,6) linkages as active ingredients.
Patients with diabetic ulcers were treated topically with a 2% solution of soluble β-1,3/1,6-glucan. All patients that received β-glucan treatment had complete healing of ulcers within 100 days and most ulcers healed by day 35.
A pseudo ceramide for skin care products: Okada et al review the development and application of a pseudo ceramide to skin care products.2 Intercellular lipids (ICL) form lamellar structure in the stratum corneum of the skin. ICL is one of the important determinants of barrier and water-holding functions of the stratum corneum. Ceramides are major components of ICL and perform a significant role concerning these skin properties. A pseudo-ceramidea, which is an analogous compound of natural ceramide type II, was synthesized on the basis of molecular design. Recently, the authors focused on analogs of sphingosine which is a metabolite of ceramide and a new emulsifi cation technology was found. The ternary system of water, this pseudo-ceramide, and sphingosine neutralized with acid can form a stable lamellar structure.
