Natural extract powders have been all the rave for a while now. After all, customers are going to the green side, choosing eco-friendly, natural products. So, natural extract powders have become a key element in cosmetic formulations, with useful applications in the health and pharmaceutical field.
Nowadays, natural extract powders are becoming more present in formulations. Consumers are increasingly turning their backs on synthetic chemicals in beauty and pharmaceutical products in favor of natural ingredients.
After all, plants were the primary source of remedies and cosmetics before the discovery and use of synthetic molecules with similar properties.
So, if you are riding the tide of eco-friendly, plant-based products, you are in for a re-discovery of the plethora of benefits that plant compounds can offer. This includes their antimicrobial, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and even anti-cancerous properties.
And when it comes to the best catalog of natural extract powders currently available in the market, Bionatrx™ Extract Powders are your best option!
What Are Botanical or Natural Extract Powders?
Natural extract powders are obtained from the extracted matter of botanical origin. They come from dissolving plant constituents (roots, seeds, leaves) in a special liquid solvent that is later evaporated using an atomization process.
Hence, a natural extract powder is a hyper-concentrated, multicomponent botanical mixture rich in vitamins, minerals, and many bioactive phytochemicals, including antioxidants.
The resulting natural extract powder usually comes in a high concentration that can reach up to 10 times the original herb!
So, as hyper-condensed ingredients, botanical extracts are usually found at the bottom of ingredient labels. But don't be fooled by this fact. Natural extract powders are used in low quantities but offer many benefits due to their concentrated nature.
The History Behind Natural Extract Powders
Using plants for medicinal purposes is as old as humankind. It all started empirically, through a "trial and error" instinctive approach to curing illness and diseases.
From ancient times, man has searched for natural drugs in the form of leaves, barks, berries, or seeds due to their curative properties. So, plant extracts became the backbone of many traditional cultures and their therapeutic practices.
The oldest written record of medicinal plants for the preparation of drugs is the Sumerian clay slab from Nagpur, dating nearly 5000 years old.
And by 2500 BC, the Chinese book written by Emperor Shen Nung included 365 drugs (dried medicinal plants), many of which are still used today, and the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus dating to 1500 B.C.E comprised recipes for drug preparations using over 700 plant species.
Later, the Greeks made huge advances in categorizing medicinal plants and their uses, so much so that during the Middle Ages, the Greek botanical compilations and Arab works were used by the monks as a blueprint to prepare herbal remedies.
The early 19th century, though, was a turning point in the usage of medicinal plants due to the isolation of alkaloids from poppy. Then, the morphine and synthetic pharmacy era arrived.
According to many authors, natural extracts had many shortcomings due to fundamental variations and changes in the chemical composition during the drying process of medicinal plants.
Nowadays, medicinal plants are making a huge comeback thanks to today's modern and sophisticated extraction processing, with extensively identified active components.
Botanical Extract's Standardization is Key
To keep in line with current good manufacturing practices (cGMP), natural extract powders must be standardized to ensure consistent composition and quality.
After all, the composition of natural extracts may present significant variations depending on the solvent(s) used, the steps taken during the extraction, the temperature, and the duration of the process.
Indeed, using natural extract powders demands close attention to the extraction methods, the content of active ingredients, and final plant-to-solvent ratios.
Other causes of variation, even coming from the same plant species as starting raw materials, include:
-
Genetic factors.
-
Different states of the growing cycle.
-
Environmental conditions (climate season, landscape conditions).
-
Agricultural practices.
So, controlling natural variations in the quality of starting botanical material and following standardized extraction procedures can help to keep "batch-to-batch" consistency.
Hence, this standardization process allows for constituent "fingerprinting" or chemical characterization of the botanical extracts, thus preserving their identity, composition, quality, and strength.
What Are the Benefits of Natural Extract Powders?
The main benefits reported for natural extracts powders are due to the presence of phytochemical constituents with important antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities.
Examples of phyto-antioxidants in natural extract powders are polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenes, and vitamins (C and E).
These natural antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress due to free radicals or even protect cosmetic formulations from oxidative degradation.
What are free radicals? They are unstable, highly reacting oxygen-containing molecules responsible for skin aging (for example) due to UV radiation, air pollution, and stress.
The problem with oxidative stress is that it can also cause lipidic oxidation. This translates into cellular damage, DNA changes, protein denaturalization, and cell death leading to diseases and cancer.
What better choice or source for antioxidants than plants? After all, they can survive and reduce oxidative stress secondary to constant exposure to sunlight, pollutants, and oxygen.
So, antioxidants are substances or enzymes that donate an electron to free radicals, aka reactive oxygen species (ROS), converting them to more stable, non-radical molecules. This prevents oxidative stress and all its awful consequences.
On top of their antioxidant activity, flavonoids and Phyto-polyphenols have anti-inflammatory action, immune response stimulation potential, and detoxification properties.
Furthermore, these phenolic compounds are synthesized by plants as a primitive defense mechanism. They can penetrate bacterial cells, promoting the coagulation of their content and cell destruction- Talk about survival at its best!
So, phenolic compounds are natural antimicrobials that can inhibit the growth of microorganisms, such as Propionibacterium acnes, the acne-causing bacteria. Or, they could act as natural preservatives, improving the shelf life of formulations.
Finally, some plant vitamins (mainly C and E) may provide skin benefits such as fading hyperpigmentation and bruises, collagen production stimulation, keratinization refinement, and anti-inflammatory effects.
BionatrxTM Extract Powders: From Nature Right to Your Hands
As mentioned, natural extracts powders are not newcomers in the pharmacy and cosmetic industry.
But now, customers are re-discovering and taking full advantage of their many benefits. After all, a few years ago, "natural" wasn't always better because phytocompounds can be highly unstable and degrade quickly.
However, newer standardization and formulation techniques allow natural extract powders to compete with and surpass synthetic compounds' performance. They are considered APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients).
Indeed, phytophenolic compounds in BionatrxTM Extract Powders are potent and can be easily incorporated into cosmetic formulations (soaps, creams, lotions, and conditioners), herbal medicines, dietary supplements, and even energy drinks. Also, the natural powder extracts produced by McKinley Resources Inc come from ethically and sustainable raw botanical materials obtained from approved suppliers. They follow environmentally responsible practices and standardization processes.
The Takeaway: BionatrxTM Extract Powders Go Beyond Cosmeceuticals Applications
BionatrxTM Extract Powders provide unique benefits, and each type of botanical extract serves different purposes that must be considered. They come from artichoke, grape seed, and St. John's Wort, among other popular medicinal herbs.
Indeed, this diverse group of natural extract powders can be included in various Cosmetic, Nutrition & Health, and Pharmaceutical formulations. So, natural extract powders are not only potent cosmeceuticals!
That's right, BionatrxTM Extract Powders' benefits are not only limited to the beauty industry.
Of course, they are excellent emollients, anti-aging, and anti-acne ingredients. But they can also provide cough relief, lower cholesterol, offer liver protection, improve gastrointestinal health, and even help with venous insufficiency.
So, with BionatrxTM Extract Powders, you get safer, natural ingredients obtained using eco-friendly practices. They literally come from the Earth and help keep you healthy, including your inner body, not only your skin!
