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A question for the chemistry majors on tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, please . . .
Hi, all.
Can someone please have a glance at page 3 in this document? Does this mean that tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate contains (iso)palmitic acid? Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate is described elsewhere as “the tetra-ester of ascorbic acid and isopalmitic acid,” but I do not know what that means in terms of whether the end product actually contains palmitic/isopalmitic acid.
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4 Replies
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It means the “R” group is the hydrocarbon portion of isopalmitic acid.
But no, it doesn’t contain isopalmitic acid. The Isopalmitic acid losses an -OH group and bonds to the ascobic acid to form an ester. - C - O - C -
Unless there is some residual, unreacted isopalmitic acid, the end product does not contain it.
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The isopalmityl and tetrahexyldecyl residues aren’t chemically identical and are even in cosmetics usually differenciated. However, cosmetics does not really adhere to classical organic chemistry and sees things a little too lax ;( .Anyway, tetrahexyldecyl chains are derived from a Guerbert alcohol (even in cosmetics) whilst isopalmityl moieties are isomerised palmityl chains which comprise a mixture of linear hydrocarbon chains with several methyl branches (true ‘isopalmityl’ is just the main constituent and Guerbet alcohol derivatives do not occur).Both tetraesters of ascorbic acid are in use, officially under two different INCI names. Distinguishing might not be too easy just by looking at them. -
@Pharma Does it worth the hype?
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You do the maths:- Both are huge molecules with a ‘tine’ amount of bound ascorbic acid.- The branched alkyl chains make enzymatic cleavage difficult -> biological activation is not that easy.- They’re highly lipophilic and keep them stuck in the upper SC in the lipophilic compartment (activating enzymes are in the aqueous compartments).- They’re more expensive than plain ascorbic acid and a lot more expensive on an equimolar scale (same amount of ascorbic acid and not same weight).
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