Safety Assessment of Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary)-Derived Ingredients as Used in Cosmetics

Abstract

The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel (Panel) assessed the safety of 10 Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary)-derived ingredients and concluded these ingredients are safe as used in cosmetics when formulated to be nonsensitizing. The R officinalis-derived ingredients are most frequently reported to function in cosmetics as skin conditioning agents or as fragrance ingredients. The Panel reviewed the available animal and clinical data to determine the safety of these ingredients. Because final product formulations may contain multiple botanicals, each containing the same constituents of concern, formulators are advised to be aware of these constituents and to avoid reaching levels that may be hazardous to consumers. Industry should continue to use good manufacturing practices to limit impurities that could be present in botanical ingredients.

In Vitro and Clinical Safety Assessment of the Multiple W/O/W Emulsion Based on the Active Ingredients from Rosmarinus officinalis L., Avena sativa L. and Linum usitatissimum L.

“…Despite that several studies have demonstrated that 0.1% rosemary leaf extract applied topically could cause skin erythema, our data contradicted with their results [ 50 , 51 ]. Moreover, Monice et al stated that it is safe to use rosemary leaf extract up to the 10 mL/kg and the pretreatment with 10 to 1000 µg/cm 2 of the rosemary extract could significantly reduce ear edema caused by 25 ng/cm 2 of 12-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in mice [ 52 ]. All the participants of the current study had negative reaction according to the International Contact Dermatitis Research Group criteria.…”

Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Rosemary): An Ancient Plant with Uses in Personal Healthcare and Cosmetics

“…They also reported six chemotypes depending on the dominant molecule and another six intermediates for the same genotype [51]. Fiume et al [49] confirmed that the amount of carnosol and carnosic acid present in the extract varies with the method of extraction. The level of carnosol and carnosic acid found in a rosemary extract prepared from a partially deodorized ethanol extract of rosemary is between 5% and 7%, whereas in an extract prepared with supercritical carbon dioxide, the level increases up to 30%.…”

“…Fiume et al [49] found, in a study conducted in the United States, that rosemary can be observed in 729 formulations. Its essential oil (usually used in fragrances) and leaf extract (as a skin conditioner) were found to have 474 and 404 uses, respectively.…”

“…On the other hand, three different chemotypes can be differentiated: cineoliferum (with a high percentage of 1,8-cineole), camforiferum (with more than 20% camphor), and verbenoniferum (with more than 15% verbenone) [15,46]. There is a large body of scientific literature in which the chemical composition of rosemary is discussed [9,11,15,23,37,[46][47][48], and this is increasing as more sophisticated methods of analysis are used to examine extracts [49]. In this work, we only study volatile essential oil (Rosmarini aetheroleum) and the non-volatile part of the leaf extract (Rosmarini folium), which are the two forms collected in the Royal Spanish Pharmacopoeia of 2015, which is equivalent to the current European Pharmacopoeia [8].…”

Six Common Herbs with Distinctive Bioactive, Antioxidant Components. A Review of Their Separation Techniques

“…Rosemary extracts have been proposed and used as bioactive, antioxidant additives in food, cosmetics, packaging, etc. [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Their worldwide market is expected to present an annual growth rate of roughly 3.7% over the next five years, and will reach 260 million US$ in 2024 from 210 million US$ in 2019 [ 53 ].…”