Preservatives/Antioxidants ** Absolutes & Safety

April 3, 2004

Hi Merriebell,

>>you do accept that there is no such thing as a natural preservative

>>that is SAFE and EFFECTIVE .. right?

> Hi Butch, What about Vitamin E and Jojoba oil? I thought these two went a

> long way to helping preserve skin care products without actually having to add

> another preservative.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, not a preservative. Many folks confuse

preservatives and antioxidants .. the latter being agents that inhibit

micro biological growth. Antioxidants assist in preventing oxidation

(rancidity) and make a product look better but they're useless as far as

keeping fungus, yeast and bacteria critters from growing.

We can get confused if we look up the words in a dictionary because

there is a lot of overlap .. very broad definitions .. but in the

cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry the definitions I gave above are

universally accepted.

Jojoba does nothing .. except lasts a long time. Its a carrier .. not

even an oil .. its a wax. The fact that jojoba and fractionated coconut

have an indefinite shelf life is fine but they won't preserve anything.

I said that there were no SAFE and effective natural preservatives ..

but there are many natural preservatives. Origanum comes to mind .. it

will kick butt on a laundry list of critters that is so long it would

fill your hard drive .. but the amount needed would make the product

unsafe as well as unappetizing. ;-)

> I hope you have a lovely warm day when you get up.

Thankee .. that is was. Had to hang around home from 1:30 till a few

minutes ago as the PTT folks were coming to hook up new phone/fax/PC

lines. Americans only don't realize how lucky they are in dealing with

utilities .. try it when there is but one company .. a dang government

monopoly that has no need to be concerned about customer service .. and

who dictates to the customers as a commander does to his troops. Might

be that there are some countries that (like America) have a number of

phone, gas, water and electric providers in a single city .. but I have

not served in one of those countries yet .. America is very unique.

> Merrily Yours,

> Merribell

> Now pouring under the Waxing Moon

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

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