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Question On Glycols
Hello Chemist Corner,
I read somewhere that glycols such as propylene, ethylene, etc denature proteins and causes wrinkles. Is that true or false?
Thank You, Persona
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9 Replies
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Where did you read this?
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I read about on some website that listed ingredients to avoid. then i googled it myself, but did not really understand so I decided to come to this forum and ask.
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@Belassi ^
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False. They are humectants. They help moisturize skin. They don’t cause wrinkles
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Never heard such a thing
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That has to be completely false info!
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@Perry @DRBOB@VERDIENT.BIZ @DavidW Thanks guys so much for your responses. So just to be clear glycols are not used as protein denaturants in science right?
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Glycerol increases protein stability and solubility when creating protein solutions in the lab.
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@Persona - I think you are misunderstanding the term “glycols”. There are potentially tens of thousands of ingredients that could be considered glycols. Glycol just means it contains at least two -OH groups attached to different carbon atoms.
So, Ethylene Glycol, Propylene Glycol and Polyethylene Glycol are all glycols but they do not chemically behave the same. It’s a bit like saying bananas and oranges are the same because they are fruits.
Ethylene glycol can be used to denature specific proteins but not keratin. Propylene glycol might help denature DNA under certain circumstances.
But when used in skin care “glycols” are not skin protein denaturants. Instead they are good moisturizing ingredients.
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