Scientists in Taiwan develop new method to study cosmetic product safety

Scientists at Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan used chemometric experimental process to invent a CD-CE method to study seven Hydroxy acids in cosmetic products.

Scientists said Hydroxy acids (HAs) are organic acids that comprise one or more hydroxyl groups.

Alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA), also known as ‘fruit acids’, are used in the cosmetics industry, with the concentration normally between 4% and 10%, reported cosmeticsdesign.com.

The compounds are used in formulation of cosmetic products to improve skin texture and reduce pigmentation and wrinkles.

The researchers said the new method involves a chemometric experimental design factors, such as fractional factorial design and central composite design (CD), which are used to improve the method’s separation capacity and to explore the interactions between parameters.

According to the scientists using the capillary electrophoresis (CE), ionic species can be separated by their charge and frictional forces and hydrodynamic radius.

The new method that used chemometric experimental design takes up lesser time and also cuts costs compared to the conventional investigation method, which needs multiple parameters , according to the researchers.

The researchers said by applying a chromatographic resolution statistic function, the new study determined three experimental variables (phosphate concentration, surfactant concentration, and methanol percentage) on the experimental response influences.

The study author told cosmeticsdesign.com that folowing maximisation and validation, the new simple and rapid analysis method was considered to be established and was successfully applied to several commercial cosmetic products.