The Journal of Topical Formulations
(ISSN 1554-0197)
published by Scribionics Katvah

Rosemarie L. Coste, General Editor
Elishalom Yechiel, Ph.D., Scientific Editor

An Online Journal on
Topicals:

- Formulation
- Processing
- Intra-Dermal and
Trans-Dermal Vehicles
- Nano-Encapsulation
- Nano-Emulsion
- Topical Medicinals
- OTC
- Skincare
- Naturals
- Cosmeceuticals
- NanoBioTech

What Does It Mean?

Vegetable oils are important ingredients in many topical formulations, as well as in many foods. Oil is described in several ways, including the name of the plant from which it was extracted, the part of the plant (the fruit? the seed? the leaf? the bark?) used, and the part of the world in which the plant grew. Oil is also often labelled to describe the method by which the oil was removed from the remainder of the plant material. One of those methods, cold extraction, although its name suggests that perhaps the plant material is processed in a freezer, or somehow changed by exposure to dry ice, is actually a very simple and ancient method, practiced in warm climates without need for refrigeration equipment; it does not mean that cold temperatures are used at all.

Cold extraction is a term sometimes used interchangeably with cold pressed. Cold extraction usually refers to an extrusion process in which solvents are not used. For example, cold pressed olive oil is produced by squeezing olives in a mechanical press. This is the labor-intensive process favored by operators of family farms and producers of small batches of oil. For large-scale commercial processes, oil extraction more often involves solvents such as hot hexane (commonly used in extracting soybean oil), followed by refinement processes in which other chemicals are used. Some manufacturers may use the term cold extraction even when solvent extraction is used if the process does not reach very high temperatures.

So, "cold" actually means "not hot". In cold extraction, temperatures do not rise high and therefore oxidation and free radical damage to the oils are kept at a minimum. In hot solvent extractions, care must be taken that the atmosphere does not include oxygen, which is also a safety issue when dealing with hot hexane. In the presence of oxygen, hot hexane and olive oil can produce a violent explosion.

Generally, vegetable oils include natural anti-oxidants such as Vitamin E, and therefore short exposure to high temperature may not be damaging, but there is no doubt that non-solvent cold extraction or cold pressed extraction is the cleanest and safest method, though definitely not the cheapest one, of obtaining oils from vegetable sources.

In this issue:
Welcome to the Journal of Topical Formulations

Feature Article: Anti-Oxidants, Oxidative Stress, and Cellular Aging

The Formulator's Bookshelf

Sites Worth Seeing

What Does It Mean?

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