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Sodium Benzoate + Vitamin C Compatibility
Hi all,
Very new to cosmetic science, but wanting to add a simple serum/toner mist to my line in form of a technology known as cellular extract.
I have done some research which suggests that Vitamin C - L-ascorbic acid in the presence of Sodium Benzoate can react and form benzene which is a known carcinogenic and DNA disruptor.
The company I wish to purchase the extracts off use sodium benzoate as their preservative, and the extract I wish to purchase is a plant profile containing up to 2300-3100 mg/100g of natural vitamin C in a water soluble format. The plant extract is a technology which basically encapsulates the plant profile at a cellular level into an aqueous solution + its full entourage of phytocompounds, micronutrients and enzymes.
As the vitamin C is not synthetic, but biological ascorbic acid, would this concept of the vitamin C reacting with the sodium benzoate still apply?
From my understanding synthetic ascorbic acid has the exact same molecular structure as biological vitamin C.
I would appreciate someone with experience chiming in and shedding some light on this topic.
Thanks so much
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2 Replies
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This article from Science Magazine is very comprehensive: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sodium-benzoate-nonsense. Decarboxylation of benzoate is not easy to carry out, especially in normal conditions (catalysts and other conditions are often required).
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Excellent article. I’ll add a chelator like EDTA you should be using to facilitate preservation should also be constraining potential production of benzene and it’s doubtful your pH is low enough to drive the reaction <3.
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