New miracle natural anti-aging ingredient, Leniphenol

Posted by Chemlink in Chemlink Lab, Chemlink Updates, Personal Care Products | 0 comments

What is Leniphenol?

Leniphenol is a polyphenolic complex derived from FSC certified pine bark, lignin. Polyphenols are secondary metabolites made by plants and their purpose is to protect plants from UV and pathogens. A carefully balanced mixture of 3 of these polyphenols make up Leniphenol which can help protect the skin from pollution, UV rays, irritant products and ageing.

It’s a completely natural ingredient with outstanding lenitive and anti-irritating properties, as such, it’s suitable for all skin types, even sensitive skin.

Leniphenol comes in liquid form and can be used in a variety of strengths, from 1 – 3%, in skincare formulations. It has a brown pigment and a characteristic pine scent. Its pH is a neutral 7-8 making it a gentle and suitable product many skincare formulations.

Leniphenol qualities

• UV skin protection
• Anti-itch with a dose-dependant effect
• Skin firming
• Protects skin from from air pollution
• Anti redness and anti-inflammatory

The science

UV skin protection – Because one of the main qualities of all polyphenols is to protect living tissues against the effects of UV rays, this is one of the most prominent reasons to use a product like Leniphenol in your formulations. Skin exposure to UV rays only produces negative results such as: wrinkling, scaling, dryness, hyper or hypo pigmentation and could potentially lead to skin cancer, so reducing exposure is important not only for the appearance of your skin, but the health of the body’s largest organ.

Most polyphenols are pigmented, and this pigment is able to provide UV protection. The pigment absorbs the UV radiation and thus prevents the UV rays from reaching the surface of the skin. When UV light penetrates the skin, it doesn’t just stop at the outer most layer of skin. UVA waves can cause more serious damage to the skin by being able to penetrate down to the dermal layer of the skin, this exposes more risk to serious damage, especially with DNA and the potential risk to causing skin cancer. Polyphenols can absorb the entire UVB spectrum as well as well as some UVA and UVC spectra.

In addition, Leniphenol also has the ability to increase SOD (Superoxide Dismutase) activity, SOD is one of the body’s most powerful natural antioxidant enzymes by scavenging Radical Oxidative Species which are caused by UV rays.

Protects skin from from air pollution – Similarly, the Leniphenol increases SOD activity which helps to protect the skin from Radical Oxygen Species. These ROSs in conjunction with UV rays have an intrinsic and photoaging effect on skin. Leniphhenol can offer double the amount of anti-oxidant when compared to Vitamin C, whilst also offering a longer life span when compared directly to Vitamin C.

Anti-itch, anti-redness and anti-inflammatory – Leniphenol reduces itching, redness and inflammation by having a specific activity on IL-1α. IL-1α stands for Interleukin 1α, an inflammatory cytokine that activates the inflammatory process. So reducing this inflammatory process helps to calm and sooth irritated skin, reducing redness, itch and inflammation locally. Leniphenol inhibits Basophil cell degranulation which, when this occurs, released histamines which causes the itching. To inhibit the cellular degranulation with Leniphenol, is entirely on a dose dependant effect.  Leniphenol is also classed as non allergenic meaning it’s an agent well suited for sensitive skin products due to its pleiotropic nature.

Skin firming – Leniphenol inhibits the activity of hyaluronidase and elastase enzymes which are responsible for a loss of skin elasticity. Hyaluronidase enzymes break down collagen fiber and inhibit hyaluronic acid, further disabling elastin and collagen molecules from binding, plus its levels are increased with exposure to free radicals. And elastase enzymes reduce the elastin in the skin, resulting in loser skin prone to wrinkles. So inhibiting these two enzymes will certainly improve the skin firmness when used over time.

Use this ingredient in…

This product would be good for any skincare formulation, but especially those whose aim it is to reduce the effects of aging. UV rays, pollution and the aging process all take a toll on the skin, but Leniphenol can help fight back against all three of these risk factors.

Also, if your brand is geared towards eco-friendly alternatives, this is a brilliant additive to promote. It follows the Forest Stewardship Council criteria meaning that the bark that the Leniphenol is sourced from comes from a well managed forest where the ecosystem is maintained, conserved and/or restored. This product is from a truly sustainable and natural source.

Finally, if you’re making an anti-itch product, Leniphenol is a great ingredient thanks to its anti-itch properties and its suitability to sensitive skin.

If you’d like to include Leniphenol in your formulation to achieve or enhance any of these qualities, give our team a call and discuss your specific requirements.

If you have a formulation in-mind and you’d like to take advantage of these great characteristics, our fully-equipped lab and our technicians are on standby to create a unique formulation for your from scratch. Contact us today.