Dr Lisa Gandolfi , VP of marketing , and Dr Tobias Fütterer , director of applications and technical services at Inolex , introduce AminoSensyl Ultra MB
Breakthrough conditioning for sustainable BTAC replacement
Dr Lisa Gandolfi , VP of marketing , and Dr Tobias Fütterer , director of applications and technical services at Inolex , introduce AminoSensyl Ultra MB
Natural cationic charge Non-quat cationic group derived from biobased amino acid and neutralized with biobased ethanesulfonic acid
Figure 1 – Structure of AminoSensyl Ultra MB
O
O
Readily biodegradable Ester linking group derived from amino acid
Renewable carbon chain Lipophilic alkyl group from fatty alcohols derived from renewable plant oils
AminoSensyl Ultra MB * ( INCI : Cetearyl Alcohol ( and ) Brassicyl Valinate Esylate ) is one of Inolex ’ s new technologies for conditioning hair . It is 100 % natural , in accordance with ISO 16128 natural origin index and the USDA BioPreferred programme , and both COSMOS- and NaTrueapproved , as well as vegan , crueltyfree and readily biodegradable . It can be used as a replacement for behentrimonium chloride ( BTAC ) and behentrimonium methosulfate ( BS ), offering equivalent performance in both rinse-off and leaveon formulations .
The new material is a preneutralised combination of cationic amino lipid with a fatty alcohol , that forms lamellar liquid crystals , making it pre-optimised from a ratio perspective and thus easy to formulate . It strengthens , smooths and defines hair , and is gentle to the scalp and eyes , while the combination of being cationic and based on nonquat technology means that it is safe for aquatic environments .
Figure 1 shows the structure of AminoSensyl Ultra MB . The cationic group ( left ) affords a natural cationic charge , which is critical to enabling conditioning products to deliver substantivity to the hair . This is maintained naturally by using biobased amino acids and it is neutralised with biobased ethanesulfonic acid .
This is the heart of the breakthrough because it is difficult to have a cationic charge from natural sources . It also means that the cationic charge is not permanent . Thus , when it ends up in waterways , it does not bind to fish gills or soil and there are no aquatic toxicity issues of the kind found with permanently charged quats . The amino acid is valine , which is derived from the biofermentation of sugarcane glucose . Valine itself occurs naturally on the cuticles of human hair .
A readily biodegradable ester linking group ( centre ), derived from amino acid , links this moiety to the lipophilic alkyl group , from fatty alcohols derived from renewable plant oil ( right ), in this case brassica alcohol derived from brassica seed oil . This carbon chain is also important for creating substantivity on the hair . This oil was chosen mainly for its optimised mixture of C 18
-C 22 carbon chains , which have unique lamellar liquid crystal structures and give a unique performance on hair .
Sustainability aspects
Inolex examines the sustainability of all products in terms of the whole lifecycle of the product , which
50 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981