Chennai: City scientists have developed the main ingredients, which have UV protection and anti-aging properties, for cosmetic products and luxury skin care from a bacterial novel strain found in seabed sediments in the Andaman Sea.
They extract genes of genes that produce this material and introduce it in bacteria commonly found for large-scale cultivation and production.
It is one of two city laboratory technology in the Ocean Technology (Niot) Institute which is transferred to the industry recently.
Other technologies are biosurfactants, which are emulsifying agents, also made of bacteria found in deep sea sediments, used in food such as ice cream, agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry, as an alternative to chemical surfactants.
The team of the marine biotechnology group in Niot identified the type of Bacillus Clausii novel found in deep sea sediments in Andaman Sea to produce ultoins, molecules that can protect the skin from ultraviolet radiation and have anti-aging properties.
They then took the ectoine gene code and inserted it in Escherichia coli or E coli for laboratory cultivation and optimizes it for faster bacterial growth, large-scale molecular production, good results and easy molecular extraction.
“At present, EcToin is being imported.
Our technology will reduce manufacturing and dependency costs,” said G Dharani, group head, Niot Marine Biotechnology.
Dharani added, “Of course, only the top organic-based cosmetics can be used.
Regular cosmetics that most of us use will have a synthetic alternative.” Previously in July, Director of Niot G A Ramadass signed an agreement to transfer technology with Cosmos Biotech LLP, Bengaluru.
The laboratory also transferred biosurfactant technology developed as an alternative to chemical surfactants used in whatever manufacture of ice cream to fertilizers and pesticides.
Biosurfactants are also developed from deep marine bacteria called brevibacterium and the culture conditions are optimized to increase the level of biosurfactant production.
Biosurfactants who derived this microbes have advantages over their synthetic colleagues such as biodegradable, non-toxic and very stable and work efficiently in various kinds of pH, temperature and salinity.
“Surfactants are emulsification agents.
When used in fatty foods such as ice cream, it will increase the surface area so that your application can be bigger.
At present, only chemical surfactants are used in the oil industry.
In food too, some chemical surfactants are allowed to be used, “Scientists said.
This technology is transferred to EcobuildCorp Private Limited Bengaluru.
Tata Sudhakar, Head, Ocean Electronic Group, Niot, said technology was transferred through the National Research Development Corporation for commercialization.