COSMETICS AND TOILETRIES

Chitin, chitosan and their derivatives offer uses in three areas of cosmetics: hair care, skin care and oral care. Products have already reached the market in all three areas.

Hair care : Chitosan and hair are complementary because they carry opposite electrical charges - chitosan positive and hair negative. A clear solution that contains chitosan forms a clear, elastic film on hair, increasing its softness and mechanical strength. The material can also form a gel when added to mixtures of alcohol and water.

Chitosan acts as an antistatic- thereby orotectine hair from wavine and bleaching aeents. It helps to retain moisture in low humidity and to maintain hair's style in high humidity. The material can be used in shampoos, rinses, permanent wave agents, hair colorants, styling lotions, hair sprays and hair tonics.

Several derivatives of chitosan and chitin have potential applications in hair care. They include glyceryl chitosan, an adduct of an oligomer of hydrolyzed chitosan, n-hydroxypropyi chitosan, quaternary hydroxypropyl-substituted chitosan, polyoxyaikylene chitosan. chitosan oligosaccharides, chitin sulfate and carboxymethyl chitin. Some derivatives of chitosan can form foam and create emulsitying action. And chitin powder can be used directly in shampoo.

Skin care : Chitosan and its derivatives have two advantages that make it suitable for skin care: their positive electrical charge, and the fact that the molecular weights of most chitosan products are so high that they cannot penetrate the skin. Thus, for example. Chitosan can function as a moisturizer for skin. Because of its lower costs, it might compete with hyaluronic acid in this application. Both chitosan and chitin are already found in creams, pack material, lotions, nail enamel, foundation, eye shadow, lipstick, cleansing materials and bath agents.

In many cases, cosmetics companies use the same derivatives and formulations for skin care that they apply in products for hair care. Also used for skin care are chitosan acylated with an organic diacid anhydride, and fine particles of chitin or chitosan.

Oral care : Both chitin and chitosan can be used in toothpaste, mouthwashes and chewing gum; they freshen the breath and prevent the formation of plaque and tooth decay. Salts of chitosan added to toothpaste mask the unpleasant taste of silicon oxide and bind powders so that they maintain their granular shapes. Chitin can also be applied as a dental filler material. And both chitin and chitosan absorb Candida a thicans, a fungus that sticks to teeth, making them candidates to clean false teeth.