Essential Oils as Preservatives in Cosmetics: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Cosmetics are more natural and sustainable due to pressure from the current society, which requires modification in traditional components, usually synthetic. Preservatives, which aim to extend products due to their ability to inhibit the growth and proliferation of microorganisms, are at the forefront of this change. The present study is characterized as an integrative review carried out about the use of essential oils (EO) as a cosmetic preservative, evaluating its effectiveness to replace or complement the current preservative system. The research's guiding question was: EOs are effective as cosmetic preservatives and substitute equivalents for synthetic ones? Twenty-eight articles were selected in the consulted databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scielo). EOs are promising natural preservatives either alone or combined with other EOs and with synthetic preservatives and additives. The results in vitro and cosmetic formulations demonstrated antimicrobial action in a broad spectrum of microorganisms. However, there is no standardization of the methods used to assess the antimicrobial efficacy and few studies with continuity, being necessary to carry out more studies concerning the preservative activity in ready-made cosmetic formulations and in vivo studies with humans using the final product for comparison and, in the future, replacement of synthetic preservatives by the OE.

Formulasi Tea Tree Oil sebagai Pengawet dalam Masker Gel Peel-Off Ekstrak Etanol Beras Merah (Oryza rufipogon Griff.)

“…Selain itu dapat menjadi pendukung bahwa tea tree oil mempunyai aktivitas antibakteri yang sama dengan kombinasi metilparaben dan propilparaben seperti data yang dilaporkan oleh (Matos & Cruz, 2018) karena memiliki hasil cemaran negatif. Kombinasi essential oil sebagai bahan pengawet J Pharm Sci Clin Res, 2024, 01 21 alami dan paraben sebagai bahan pengawet sintetis dapat menjadi negatif untuk mengurangi efek samping dari penggunaan paraben dengan cara meminimalisir konsentrasi yang digunakan (Bello et al, 2022;Herman et al, 2013).…”