“PRESERVATIVES the necessary evil in skin care products”
How do Preservatives actually work?
“Preservatives are thought to act by:
- disrupting membrane transport processes or
- by inhibiting synthesis of DNA and RNA or
- disrupting some key enzymes, such as ATPases and phosphotransferases, in some bacterial species.
Propylparaben is considered more active against most bacteria than methylparaben.
The stronger antibacterial action of propylparaben may be due to its greater solubility in the bacterial membrane, which may allow it to reach cytoplasmic targets in greater concentrations. However, since a majority of the studies on the mechanism of action of parabens suggest that their antibacterial action is linked to the membrane, it is possible that its greater lipid solubility disrupts the lipid bilayer, thereby interfering with bacterial membrane transport processes and perhaps causing the leakage of intracellular constituents.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraben
So in essence the propylparaben mimics the bacterial membrane and can therefore transfer through it much more easily than some other preservatives. The high concentration then helps to disrupt the activity of the bacteria.
Ortron is always keeping abreast of issues with certain raw materials and evaluates their potential hazards. Where possible we substitute ingredients which have questionable properties with much more acceptable ones. There are some very useful alternatives to parabens and Methyl chloroisothiazolinone & methyl isothiazolinone MIT, some are even from natural sources. These alternatives will be discussed in more detail in another part to this topic of discussion regarding preservatives.
In part 3 we will examine what the issues are with Methyl ethyl propyl butyl isobutyl para benzoic acid (Parabens)