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OTT-CSIC-> Catalogue -> Technologies by Areas -> Biology / Biomedicine ->
CSIC BIO091- Natural melanins extraction for pharmacologic/cosmetic uses
Spanish Research Institute has patented the first extraction procedure for the obtaining of natural and unaltered pheomelanin, eumelanin and pseudo-pheomelanin precipitates from feathers and mammal furs. These pigments are the natural skin photoprotector and used as creams would allow the formation of an artificial second skin with different colour tonality and protection capacity according to the necessities. Our interest is now focus on the industrial development of this procedure. The Institute is looking for Industrial Partners from the cosmetic and pharmaceutical fields to license agreement
Specification sheet:
DESCRIPTION

By the present invention it is described, as first time, a procedure to obtain purified extracts of pheomelanin, eumelanin and pseudo-pheomelanin from useless raw material like feathers and mammal furs. This quick and low cost procedure is based on an initial alkaline treatment to separate pheomelanins, followed by a transformation of the insolubles eumelanins into soluble pseudopheomelanins by means of an alkaline oxidation reaction.

The precipitated product obtained (pheomelanin, eumelanin and pseudo-pheomelanin) shows an intense colour. Besides, they are insoluble either on hydrophilic and lipophilic medium, being merely disperse on highly viscous solids or semisolids, giving different colours depending on their concentration and the initial incipient colour.

These pigments can be used either as protective creams, cosmetic make up (creams, make up and dye) or skin illness. Furthermore, the present invention also describes an easy and suitable procedure to quantify melanins. The relative concentrations of pheomelanins and eumelanins can be measured, by spectrophotometry, from the soluble compounds obtained on the oxidative processes.

INNOVATIVE ASPECTS

The described methodology allow to get, with easy and low cost treatments, dry concentrates of pheomelanin, eumelanin and pseudopheomelanin which can be used as natural raw material to cosmetic and dermatologic aims. Melanins are natural skin pigments being one of these main functions the photoprotection. Due to each of these concentrates can be individually obtained, it is possible to get, by combination of different concentrations of all of them, any sort of the existing skin tonalities.

These concentrates might be used like cream, ointment or spray, as second skin that would have a protective function against the UV radiation, for example like sun protector. At the same time, thanks to the wide scale of natural colours concentrates that could be obtained, they also might be used as make up agent both with cosmetic (for example skin make up, eyelash, eyebrow, nails and hair dyes) and dermatologic aims in skin illnesses.

As additional advantage, the methodology presented involves a notable advance in the melanin field. Using simple method is possible to quantify the pheomelanin and eumelanin concentration present in a sample as well.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

The procedure described allows to get products that until now have not been used on the cosmetic and pharmacology market. Melanins are natural compounds present on the skin and fur of the mammals and in feathers, as pheomelanins, responsible of the blond and reddish tonalities and eumelanins, responsible of the black ones. Its function in mammals is as sun screen avoiding the epitelio photo-oxidative damage.

The use of melanins as cosmetic or pharmacologic products would allow to count with the best natural sun screen ever. Furthermore, the wide range of colours present in the different pheomelanin families allow, at the same manner that happens in our own skin, obtain many kind of tonalities just by combination of different amounts of both pheomelanin and eumelanin.

KEYWORDS

melanin, eumelanin, pheomelanin, hair pigments, skin pigments, feather pigments.

PATENT

P200703395 applied for 2007-12-21

CONTACT

Jose Ramón Domínguez
email: jrdominguez@orgc.csic.es
phone: +34 95 450 09 78

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