– BIOACTIVES GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTS FROM BIOTRANSFORMATION AND BIOFERMENTATION

INGREDIENTS FROM BIOTRANSFORMATION
AND BIOFERMENTATION

Author

Smitha Rao MS, MBA

Lonza

70 Tyler place South Plainfield NJ 07080

ABSTRACT

Historically, fermentation is defined as a natural process of converting complex carbohydrates into alcohols using bacteria or yeast. The use of fermentation for food precedes human history. Evidence of traditional wine and beer fermentation with yeast has been documented since 3000 bce. Since the discovery of antibiotics by fungi in the 1920s, biotransformation of ingredients via fermentation has been explored for pharmaceutical applications. Fermentation and cell culture encompass a wide range of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, algae, and mammalian cells. Harnessing the power of biotransformation of organisms has been exploited for a multitude of industrial benefits including pharmaceutical, nutritional, bio-energy, and cosmetic applications. The biotransformation techniques employed for cosmetic and personal care traditionally focus on natural methodologies using safe microbes and plants. In addition, much of the process of fermentation and cell culture can be done in a controlled environment and elicited to express secondary metabolites and novel bioactive ingredients of interest. These ingredients expressed during fermentation can be difficult to isolate, and not found in nature in significant quantities. Therefore, fermentation and cell culture become sustainable means of producing unique ingredients with tremendous potential for personal care applications. For example, cell cultures of rare and economically challenged plants are a sustainable means to express important bioactive components such as carotenoids and flavonoids. Biofermentation and plant-tissue culture are definitely more economical and sustainable compared to extracting carotenoids and flavonoids from field-grown plants. Current industrial practices for personal care focus on exploring novel extracts and components generated by biotransformation that are both natural and recombinant. These novel ingredients can be peptides, proteineaceous extracts, enzymes, small molecules, and phytoactive components. The following section focuses on describing the novel ingredients generated from biofermentation of organisms (microbes, plants, and algae). The section will discuss the mode of action and efficacy of these novel ingredients, then applications in the personal care industry. The section will conclude with the future outlook for bioactives in personal care generated by fermentation and cell culture.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4.1.4.31 The rise of green and sustainable cosmetic ingredients
from fermentation

4.1.4.32 The impact on environment

4.1.4.33 Activity in cosmetics

Conclusion

References

4.1.4.31 RISE OF GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE
COSMETIC INGREDIENTS FROM FERMENTATION

Fermentation-based products have a long history of use for cosmetics and beauty product applications. Whether it is the application of yogurt for scalp health, applying leftover grape-musts for skin care, or the use of fermented foods for beautification, the benefits of fermentation-based ingredients transcend cultures and geographies. Historically, most of the fermented products used for cosmetic mimic the nutritional diet referenced in a particular geographic region. The combination of fermentation and folkloric botanicals was often explored for enhanced benefit for health and beauty with continued success. The scientific community of consumer products realized the true potential of exploiting organisms for creating the next generation of ingredients for consumer products.

The focus of biotransformation efforts of the 19th and 20th century capitalized on the diversity of organism species available for fermentation. Fermentation efforts included a wide variety of bacterial species, yeasts, fungi, algae, plants, and unique organisms found in extreme environments (extremophiles). Coupled with the advances in the field of biotechnology for pharmaceuticals and drug discovery, the advent of using organisms (in particular microorganisms) as “biological factories” allowed scientists to generate novel compounds for beauty and wellness.

The essence of fermentation is the biotransformation of simple nutrients (sugars) to create novel compounds (secondary metabolites, bioactive compounds, vitamins, enzymes, antibiotics, peptides, and growth factors, etc.). The most commonly used fermentation and cell-culture applications for cosmetic applications broadly follow the principles of “submerged” fermentation and “solid-state” fermentation methods. Submerged fermentation is the fermentation using liquid media in an enclosed tank (typically made of stainless steel). In this type of fermentation, the media are utilized relatively quickly and active compounds are typically secreted in the media or can be extracted from the organisms (13, 16). The advantage of using submerged fermentation allows organisms that require high nutrients to grow robustly, and the purification of products is relatively easily. In solid-state fermentation, the nutrients utilized are carbon-rich raw materials (such as bran, paper pulp), which are utilized slowly. During solid-state fermentation the breakdown of nutrients takes place at a slower rate and the extraction process of involves multiple steps. The advantage of solid-state fermentation is the ability to recycle the nutrient source, therefore enabling a sustainable process (10, 13, 16). Solid-state fermentation is very common for fungal organisms and in utilizing food-waste biomass for the purposes of generating high-value compounds. The general schematic of a solid-state and submerged fermentation is shown in Figure 1. Recent advances in chemical engineering focus on modifying either the submerged fermenter or solid-state fermenter for most applications commonly used in cosmetic and consumer product industry (examples include air-lift bioreactors for algae, adapted with specific light sources; bioreactors with detailed air controls and mixing targeted for plant cell culture).

Figure 1: Solid-state and submerged fermentation examples (10):

For cosmetic and topical applications, fermentation and cell culture of a variety of organisms have been explored broadly. The most commonly utilized microorganisms are inspired by the nutritional and food industries, namely Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) and Lactobacillus sp. (probiotic microorganisms). In addition, fungal species such as Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryaze (mold used for Koji rice fermentation) are well-developed fermentation vehicles. Algal cultures from macroalgae (kelp) to microalgae such as Spirulina sp. and Ulkenia sp. have been fermented in the bioreactor for specific secondary metabolites. Lastly, plant meristem cultures or the ability to harvest a broad variety of plant stem cells has garnered much success in cosmetic formulations. Furthermore, small-molecule fermentation of compounds such as resveratrol and other polyphenols have shown to be beneficial in cosmetic formulations and are bridging the gap between nutrition and personal care. Recombinant techniques have been employed to genetically modify organisms for the sustained expression of very specific secondary metabolites and compounds. It is also important to note that much of the work done in the area of fermentation and biotechnology incorporates multiple organisms and plant-based biomass.

The use of “stressed” lysates in cosmetic products is well established, and it has been demonstrated that these derivatives can help accelerate potential skin care activity in skin (7). For example, it has been found that organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and plant-cell cultures such as red rice callus culture can be grown in a bioreactor in the presence of external stresses. The response of organisms to external stresses, such as heat shock, peroxides, and ultraviolet light, is to provide enhanced production of novel active compounds that could have potential benefits for topical applications (1, 4). Figure 2

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