BIOTECHNOLOGIES
The dawn of designed enzymatic biopolymers
Natnael Behabtu – IFF Health & Biosciences
The efficacy of beauty and personal care (BPC) products remains at the forefront of consumers’ minds, particularly as a majority of BPC consumers research ingredients and product effectiveness before they make a purchase. At the same time, there is a growing expectation that ingredients are natural and eco-friendly. However, without achieving performance
equal to or greater than synthetic materials, natural and biobased alternatives will not fully replace incumbent materials nor satisfy customer and consumer needs. Polymers are an important class of
ingredients and are included in the production of most high-performance BPC products. The value of polymer ingredients in the personal care market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.8% between 2021 and 2026.1 They can be found in hair products, such as shampoos and conditioners, and in skincare products, such as moisturising lotions and liquid soaps. Each of these polymers have distinct functions and uses, as well as different characteristics in composition, manufacturing process, and physical and chemical parameters. Polymers are typically used to impart various specific functions in formulations, serving as rheology modifiers, solubility enhancers, dispersing agents, bulking agents, skin and hair conditioners, sunscreen agents, film-formers, aesthetic modifiers, and abrasives/exfoliants.
A difficult trade-off Polymers can be broadly classified as either synthetic or sourced naturally. Synthetic polymers are attractive as an excipient for cosmetics formulations as they can be tailored for specific applications. They are often cheaper than naturally-sourced polymers, can be produced and functionalized on a large scale with uniformity, and have a long shelf life. However, there is increased regulatory and
consumer pressures to replace many of these synthetic polymers that are non-biodegradable and non-renewable. Naturally-sourced polymers are becoming
commonly used in the BPC industry not only because they are biocompatible, safe, eco-friendly, and are suited for a plethora of applications, but there is also an increased demand for natural ingredients as consumers perceive these to be purer and safer for both the user and the environment. Naturally-sourced polymers such as
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cellulose and starch, being mostly extracted from natural feedstock can sometimes lack the purity and molecular design precision found in synthetic polymers. Furthermore, the scalability and reliability of supply of natural polymers are often not consistent. When selecting ingredients in a formulation,
formulators often have to trade-off between the performance of synthetic polymers and the naturality of naturally sourced polymers. This article discusses an emerging advanced
biotechnology solution that emphasizes nature- inspired ingredients with performance and design flexibility even greater than synthetic materials, while being 100% biobased and biodegradable; combining the best of both worlds.
Enzymatic polymerization of polysaccharides Polysaccharides are the most abundant natural biopolymer. Highly diverse structurally, polysaccharides are composed of repeating glucose units linked by glycosidic bonds. Each repeating glucose unit in the polysaccharide chain has three potentially reactive hydroxyl groups—in most cases one primary and two secondary hydroxyl functions. These hydroxyl groups have the potential
to react with a number of substrates such as esters, acids and amides.
Depending on the various structural
forms of the polymer, which are dictated by characteristics such as linkage isomerism, degree of polymerization, branching and material aggregation, and morphology, these materials are found in nature either as structure forming, essentially insoluble and highly aggregated materials (e.g. cellulose) or as water-soluble thickening materials (e.g. starch, pectin, and dextrins).2 As exciting as extracted polysaccharides
can be, there are many challenges when it comes to their processing and use. Synthetic polymer synthesis, however, has been developed over the course of a century to establish precise and consistent methods to reliably create tuneable or functionalized material compositions with high repeatability in characteristics such as molecular weight, polydispersity index, particle size, and melting point. Enzymatic polymerization of sugars into
polysaccharides is one solution that can address the current limitations of natural polymers. This solution enables both the synthesis of known polysaccharides with a higher purity and polymer structure precision as well as the synthesis of hard to extract or novel polysaccharides.3 In vivo enzyme catalysis of polysaccharides
March 2023 PERSONAL CARE
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