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. 2023 Jun 15;16(12):4402.
doi: 10.3390/ma16124402.

Biowaxes from Palm Oil as Promising Candidates for Cosmetic Matrices and Pharmaceuticals for Human Use

Laura María Chaparro  1 , Laura Fernanda Neira  1 , Daniel Molina  2 , Diego Rivera-Barrera  2 , Maribel Castañeda  3 , Luis Javier López-Giraldo  4 , Patricia Escobar  1
Affiliations

Biowaxes from Palm Oil as Promising Candidates for Cosmetic Matrices and Pharmaceuticals for Human Use

Laura María Chaparro et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

The production of waxes from vegetable oils, such as palm oil, for use as a base material in products for human applications is an alternative to those derived from petroleum and animals. Seven palm oil-derived waxes, called biowaxes (BW1-BW7) in this work, were obtained by catalytic hydrotreating of refined and bleached African palm oil and refined palm kernel oil. They were characterized by three properties: compositional, physicochemical (melting point, penetration value, and pH), and biological (sterility, cytotoxicity, phototoxicity, antioxidant, and irritant). Their morphologies and chemical structures were studied by SEM, FTIR, UV-Vis, and 1H NMR. The BWs presented structures and compositions similar to natural biowaxes (beeswax and carnauba). They had a high concentration of waxy esters (17%-36%) with long alkyl chains (C, 19-26) per carbonyl group, which are related to high melting points (<20-47.9 °C) and low penetration values (2.1-3.8 mm). They also proved to be sterile materials with no cytotoxic, phototoxic, antioxidant, or irritant activity. The biowaxes studied could be used in cosmetic and pharmacological products for human use.

Keywords: 1H NMR; FTIR; SEM; UV–Vis; biowaxes; cytotoxicity; palm oils; safety.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of biowaxes BW2 (a,b), BW6 (c,d), and beeswax (e,f), with two magnification values: 100 to 400× (right) and 1500 to 3000× (left). Figure S1 in the Supplementary Material presents the images of all the biowaxes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Normalized FTIR–ATR spectra of (a) natural waxes (beeswax and carnauba) and (b) biowaxes BW1–BW7 extracted from palm oil, with their respective designations of functional groups in the bands shown.
Figure 3
Figure 3
UV–Vis absorption spectra of (a) beeswax, carnauba wax, and biowaxes BW1–BW7 dissolved in toluene and measured at 20 °C, seen in the range of 200 to 800 nm, and (b) detail of the absorbances (0.00–0.10) of BW1–BW7 biowaxes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The 400-MHz 1H NMR spectra of the biowaxes obtained from hydrotreating refined and bleached palm and palm kernel oils (BW1–BW7): (a) broader spectrum in the region of the n-alkanals, (b) region of the CH3, CH2, and CH groups, and (c) broader spectrum of the BW6 biowax, where the resonances and multiplets of some of the minority species can be seen.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cytotoxicity tests in Vero cells (a) and HOS cells (b). A bar graph shows the toxic effect of the supernatant obtained after 20 days of incubation with each wax. The control (shown as PBS, pH 7.2) was incubated without wax for 20 days under the same conditions. Lower cytotoxicity values than 50% (gray line) were considered non-toxic in this work. The experiment was repeated in triplicate (n = 9). * p < 0.05.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Antioxidant activity of the waxes that were derived from palm/palm kernel oil. Control: ascorbic acid. The gray transparent bars represent the percentage inhibition of the DPPH radical scavenging activity of ascorbic acid at 1, 0.1, and 0.01 mg/mL (left to right, respectively).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Irritation test. Representative microscopic and macroscopic features after 21 days of treatment. (a) Microphotography of skin after BW7 treatment and (b) skin treated with vehicle (magnification 400×). (c) Photography of the skin from the mice treated with BW7. HD: hypodermis. DE: dermis. EP: epidermis. MS: muscle.
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