MARÍA DOLORES TORRES¹*, PATRÍCIA FRADINHO², HERMINIA DOMÍNGUEZ¹
*Corresponding author
1. Universidade de Vigo (Campus Ourense), Department of Chemical Engineering, Science Faculty, Ourense, Spain
2. LEAF – Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de
Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

This short review, covering scientific papers published from 2014 until now, deals with the use of by-products from the marine, agricultural and forestry resources for the development of novel hydrogels with functional features for personal care applications, with the consequent added value. An overview about natural matrices based on hydrogels for other applications was also given. Some representative examples of residual raw materials, their mechanical and functional properties was summarised in this review. The last part covers the future applications for these emerging matrices, since consumers look for natural and sustainable personal care products.

INTRODUCTION

The move toward green, sustainable, natural, functional products has been growing in the cosmetic and personal care industry (1). In the last decade, the amount of waste deriving from industrial processes has risen substantially. Many industries produce different types of disposable by-products, rich in valuable compounds. Their characterization and valorisation could not only convert them into high value products with application in diverse biotechnological fields, such as personal care, pharmaceutics, biomedical, food or cosmetic, but would also reduce the disposal environmental impact and the related treatment costs (2). Therefore, the global marine, agricultural and forestry industries have aimed its vision towards the integrated biorefinery. The goal is to produce diversified, innovative and revenue generating product lines using on-site bioresources. The continuous development of new bioactive or gelling ingredients for personal care and cosmetic products is one of the most important areas of research in these industries.The academia is ahead of the issued guidelines – several studies have been conducted around this matter (see as e.g. 3, 4). ...