The promise: live bacteria. The product: bacteria-free growth media. Why?
Why can’t they (the skincare industry) do what they promise? Because, by law, and for safety reasons, you can’t sell a product to apply to the human body that contains live bacteria.
Then, why promise? Promises are cheap, and ingredient lists help muddy the waters.
Here are two examples.
Heiq Synbio care Athlete foot spray
Ingredients: Water; Bacillus ferment; Phenoxyethanol; Inulin; Ethylhexylglycerin; fragrance; Dimethicone.
Heiq Synbio Hygienic hand gel
Ingredients: Denatured alcohol; water; Bacillus ferment; inulin; Xanthan gum; Triethanolamine; [4-(4-diethylaminophenyl)-5-hydroxy-2,4-disulfophenylmethylidene] diethylammonium hydroxide; fragrance.
Advertising departments add to the confusion with the misleading pseudo-word “Synbiotics.” Plus another: “postbiotic.” Any “biotic” will do? Maybe inventing silly words is easier than creating a new, useful product.
Symbiosis has a well-defined meaning in science. It’s also an old word: In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as “the living together of unlike organisms.” The term is sometimes used in the more restricted sense of a mutually beneficial interaction in which both symbionts contribute to each other’s support.
Why mislead people with a pseudoscientific term like “synbiotics”? Because probiotics involve live bacteria. They (the skincare industry) will try to confuse the matter if they can’t give you live bacteria. Changing the “m” for an “n” is also tricky because m is the preferred nasal consonant before b and p in many languages. Unfortunately, Wikipedia has allowed the addition of this silly word, “synbiotic“and now we have to live with it; such is the power of Wikipedia, and the power of advertising in manipulating Wikipedia.
What about inulin, another ingredient in the Heiq Synbio? When taken by mouth, it can change the gastrointestinal flora, although not necessarily for the better (it can produce some uncomfortable effects). In the case of the hygienic hand gel, I can’t see how inulin would have any effect, the key ingredient is denatured alcohol, a frequently used bactericide. Ethanol (and not inulin, or bacterial ferment) would be the actual bactericide; for 60%–70% ethanol, more than five min exposure times are necessary. However, only half a minute is necessary for 80%–85% ethanol concentrations to kill bacteria.
Prebiotics and the skin
What is a prebiotic? The concept dates to the 1950s when researchers described the presence of a so-called ‘bifidus factor’ in human milk, a component that promoted bifidobacteria in lactating infants; later, this factor was identified and shown to consist of complex oligosaccharides and glycans.
Prebiotics are chemicals in food that induce the growth or activity of beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. In the gastrointestinal tract, prebiotics like natural food fibers can alter the composition of organisms in the gut microbiome.
What would be the equivalent of prebiotics for human skin? Some strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis can ferment carbohydrates to produce succinic acid, a potent anti-Staphylococcus aureus and anti-C. acnes activity. This is relevant to acne treatment because, in theory, we could improve skin health and control acne by using prebiotics like succinic acid and glycerol that will discourage C. acnes from spreading.
As I said above, we are not allowed to use probiotics (live bacteria) on our skin for very good reasons, but we can use prebiotics, and we already do! The Skin Actives Scientific acne control products, contain prebiotics that modify the skin environment to make it less hospitable to the acne bacteria. We can do even more, and we will continue to improve our products as we learn more about the skin microbiome.
Prebiotics at Skin Actives
Our main prebiotic ingredient is “sea kelp bioferment” (the INCI name) we use as a base for many of our products. It starts with the sea kelp, a plant material that is rich in biochemical components that are already beneficial to our skin. But then we cultivate yogurt bacteria in this broth, and the microorganisms will make their own beneficial biochemicals and enrich the mix with prebiotics that will benefit the skin in other ways: supplying yet more vitamins and building blocks that our skin will use to make its own proteins (collagen, elastin and more), polysaccharides and DNA. We have other prebiotic base serums.
Take home lesson: don’t attack what you don’t know: if you start using strong oxidants or anti-bacterial products, or remove the external layers of the epidermis that constitute the natural skin barrier, or change the pH of your skin with “natural” antiperspirants, you may get into trouble because you will be disrupting the natural equilibrium achieved by the skin and its microbiome.
References
Horie M, Koike T, Sugino S, Umeno A, Yoshida Y. Evaluation of probiotic and prebiotic-like effects of Bacillus subtilis BN on growth of lactobacilli. J Gen Appl Microbiol. 2018 Mar 27;64(1):26-33. doi: 10.2323/jgam.2017.03.002. Epub 2017 Dec 8. PMID: 29225285.
Majeed M, Nagabhushanam K, Paulose S, Rajalakshmi HR, Mundkur L. A Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Anti-Skin-Aging Effect of LactoSporin – The Extracellular Metabolite from Bacillus coagulans (Weizmannia coagulans) MTCC 5856 in Healthy Female Volunteers. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2023 Mar 29;16:769-782. doi: 10.2147/CCID.S403418. PMID: 37016604; PMCID: PMC10066892.
Claims on this page have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease.