Brittany is a major area for marine cosmetics and ingredients derived from the sea. By making them the main theme of its 6th edition, U’Cosmetics sort of reached its destination. And the day of conferences organized in parallel with the student competition in Guingamp last March 12, 2015, was an opportunity to highlight a flagship marine resource: algae, which are as numerous as they are diverse and rich in cosmetic actives… but many of which are still little-known or exploited.
The ocean is an inexhaustible source of actives for the cosmetics industry. And as Émilie Simon, Research and Development Manager at Algotherm, reminded everyone, it constitutes a unique biodiversity area, as its marine life has lived there for ages: 3.8 billion years. Algae rank first among marine actives and present great similarities with the human body, in particular their extracellular matrices, which are quite close to that of men. According to some experts, our cells recognize the molecules derived from algae more easily than those from terrestrial plants.
The ‘incredible diversity’ of algae
However, our knowledge of marine organisms is still limited to probably 20% or 30% of the existing species. And out of the 40,000 listed on the surface of the Earth, including 800 in the sole region of Brittany, only 40 are used today. Of course, if there were only one type of algae, it would be quite simple to study them. But, as all speakers on that day of conferences kept repeating it, there is an ‘incredible diversity’ of algae.
All algae species exhibit different properties
Algae appeared 3.6 billion years ago. They are talented and powerful, able to resist and adapt to the most extreme conditions, …
