BASF partners with Ingredi for traditional Chinese medicine and actives based NPD

01 Sep 2022 --- BASF and China-based supplier of natural actives are partnering to maximize each company’s capabilities and create NPD that uses Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and actives for the personal care sector.

As part of the partnership, BASF will make a strategic equity investment in Ingredi to increase Ingredi’s production capacity and enable the introduction of additional products.

According to BASF, the collaboration is an example of how its Care Chemicals Division addresses future challenges. The key pillars of the Care 360 – Solutions for Sustainable Life are environmental sustainability, digitalization, innovation and new ways of working together.

“It is great for us to be recognized by BASF as a partner for the industry,” says Dr. Ji Zhou, chairman and founder of Ingredi, China. “The partnership with BASF will enable us to benefit from BASF’s experience in the industry and profit from each other’s know-how.”

“We aim to deliver innovative solutions to the personal care market and to build an ecosystem of partners that can support our customers,” says Dr. Robert Parker, director of new business development and digital officer of Care Chemicals at BASF.

“We are glad to collaborate with Ingredi to develop their business with mutual benefits.”

TCM and plant actives’ potential
While many consumers are familiar with the TCM market, using plant-based active ingredients with a TCM background is a new trend in the personal care sector that is growing quickly.

Ingredi brings its expertise in identifying new personal care active ingredients from natural plants in China’s Himalayan region. BASF will market these products globally to its customers after successfully demonstrating how to incorporate these ingredients into personal care formulations.

BASF and Ingredi will collaborate to identify new solutions and commercialize them in the global personal care market.By bringing innovative actives from this traditional background, Ingredi has established a track record and developed a reputation with local Chinese and international personal care formulators.

Ingredi has rapidly expanded its business thanks to a robust R&D platform and in-house testing facilities – in-vitro and in-vivo. Ingredi will be able to expand its production facilities due to BASF’s equity investment.

Furthermore, BASF and Ingredi will collaborate to identify new solutions and commercialize them in the global personal care market.

Care Creations division
The Care Chemicals division of BASF provides a wide selection of chemicals for technical applications, industrial and institutional cleaning, personal care and home care.

The division’s portfolio of “high-performance” products includes surfactants, emulsifiers, polymers, emollients, chelating agents, cosmetic active ingredients and UV filters.

In June, the division introduced Probiolift and Postbiolift – two biotic ingredients for healthy skin aging. Lactobacillus crispatus (L. crispatus) is an anaerobic bacterium found in the skin that diminishes with age.

BASF’s Care Creations previously opened a personal care evaluation salon in Lagos, Nigeria, where skin and hair formulations were tested in vivo on local volunteers.

The move was poised to assist BASF’s customers in developing NPD tailored to the specific skin and hair needs of consumers in the rapidly growing Sub-Saharan African market.

The Care Creations division also introduced Seanactiv, an ingredient based on organic-certified marine algae fucus vesiculosus that improves signs of aging and fatigue around the eye contour.

According to the company, the ingredient helps to reduce the appearance of dark circles, crow's feet wrinkles and under-eye dullness within one week of application.

Edited by Nicole Kerr