Genuine, effective ingredients derived from nature can be found in many beauty and wellness products. Consumers are aware of the benefits of plant extracts and herbal remedies, but are a much more demanding audience. They are promised results and demand delivery.

You can quench clients' desires by looking for products from manufacturers whose time-tested ingredients will improve the health of the skin, while also contributing to the esthetic appeal of a formula. Today, with advances in technology, manufacturers are able to combine the best that science and nature have to offer into products that provide results for enhanced health and beauty.

Several of the latest ingredients are intriguing and appear to have the most potential for efficacy in new skin care products. One of the most intriguing is pomegranate extract.

Pomegranate extract (Punica granatum L)
Pomegranate extract was one of the first known medicines. A native plant of Northern Africa, it is cultivated widely throughout Southeast Asia and Malaysia. In ancient times, the Greeks and Egyptians used pomegranate to heal many ailments. Writings about the pomegranate date back as far as 1550 BC in the Papyrus Ebers of Egypt, pharmaceutical documents recording a collection of 800 prescriptions. It was considered the fruit of the gods and regarded as a symbol of fertility due to its round shape and abundant seeds. Recently, scientific discoveries indicate that pomegranates have benefits transcending symbolism. Indeed, pomegranate extract has begun to permeate medical literature.

Pomegranate extract has demonstrated a variety of beneficial functions including antioxidant and anti-viral activity. In 1996, a University of Nottingham research team in Pennsylvania learned that pomegranate extract could destroy several viruses nearly on contact. The discovery of this anti-viral activity created further experimentation and clinical trials. One study confirmed that the ellagic acid from pomegranate extract effectively protects cells from damaging free radicals.* Additional phenolic compounds found in pomegranate, anthocyanidins—also well-known scavengers of free radicals—combine synergistically with ellagic acid to increase greatly pomegranate's potency as an antioxidant.

The most extraordinary benefit of this radically innovative ingredient is that it boosts the sun protection factor (SPF) rating of topical sunscreens so that the same SPF protection levels are maintained using fewer chemicals and more antioxidants. In independent studies, SPF measurements increased up to 25% after the ingestion of one pomegranate tablet containing 5% ellagic acid.**

After years of independent studies, it finally was proven that pomegranate extract boosts sun protection topically and internally.** This is just the beginning of what can be expected with internal sun protection.

Skin care roots
The science of skin care has its roots in roots—and just recently the industry has realized the benefit of combining the best that science and nature have to offer. As these naturally occurring components are studied, new and different ways to use them will be discovered; everything old will be made new again.

Resources
* A study on the Analysis of Standardized Pomegranate Extract. Nutritional Science International, Inc., Massapequa park, NJ, January 1999.
** Murad H and Shellow W, a study on Pomegranate Extract Both Orally Ingested and Topically Applied to Augment the SPF of Sunscreens, August 1999.

For additional information on black currant seed oil (Ribes nigrum), ginger extract (Zingiber officinale), Tiger's herb (Centella asiatica) and farnesol, see the October 2001 issue of Skin Inc. magazine.