Ingredient Profile: Decyl Glucoside

Alkyl polyglucoside (APG) surfactants continue to be a popular choice of formulators seeking to improve the sustainability of cleansing products for personal care, hard surface cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and industrial/institutional applications.^{1, 2} Made from 100% renewable starting materials and readily biodegradable in the environment, APGs are among the most commonly employed nonionic surfactants in so-called “green” cleansing products, and they routinely appear on the ingredient labels of personal cleansers marketed as “natural.” In cosmetic applications, decyl polyglucoside (INCI: Decyl Glucoside, see Figure 1) is the most frequently used APG,³ for it delivers reasonably high foaming and cleansing performance for a nonionic surfactant without the irritation potential of anionic detergents, such as alkyl sulfates and alkyl ether sulfates.