Cosmetics cocktail: Researchers for the “first time” spotlight cosmeceutical potential of upcycled wine lees
12 Apr 2023 --- Researchers in Spain and Portugal are highlighting the potential of diatomaceous earth powder and wine lees – “underexploited winemaking waste” – as sources of bioactive extracts or ingredients for the cosmetics industry.
On the other hand, grape pomace has already been widely studied for its bioactivity and applications in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Previous research found that organic grape waste from winemaking has rich antioxidant phenolic compounds suitable for use in skincare products.
However, the authors note that other residues from winemaking are less researched.
In their study, diatomaceous earth and wine lees were found to contain phenolic compounds.
Diatomaceous earth was especially rich in flavan-3-ols (antioxidant) and had the highest amount of epicatechin (bioactive) and non-anthocyanin phenolic compounds (pigment) among all of the extracts.
“Together with the extracts from the seeds and red pomace, the diatomaceous earth extract also revealed a promising antioxidant activity,” share the authors. “The lees extract, particularly the red ones, showed the highest capacity to inhibit bacterial growth, presenting a bacteriostatic effect against all tested bacteria.”
Diatomaceous earth and wine lees were found to contain phenolic compounds.
Skin applications?
The result of the study suggests that winemaking by-products can be suitable for obtaining biomolecules with potent anti-tyrosinase activity.
“These extracts also presented the least inhibitory effect against tyrosinase and collagenase enzymes.” These enzymes are associated with skin pigmentation and loss of firmness due to aging.
The extracts of red grape pomace, skins, seeds and stems show a higher percentage of collagenase inhibition compared to diatomaceous earth. White and red wine lees did not exhibit any activity.
The seed extract showed the most promising result against tyrosinase, while white wine lees and diatomaceous earth did not show any inhibitory activity against the tyrosinase enzyme.
However, since diatomaceous earth and wine lees showed cytotoxicity in keratinocytes (skin cells) at high concentrations, it would require further purification or elimination of the cytotoxic effect on keratinocytes.
Therefore, further studies are necessary for skin applications.
Nonetheless, the researches suggest that the actives can be used as natural colorants.
Antioxidant success
Grape seeds, red grape pomace and diatomaceous earth extracts had the highest antioxidant activity.
The wine lees from red and white wine revealed the lowest antioxidant activity. “In general, the results were in good agreement with those obtained for the phenolic content,” comment the authors.
They found 29 phenolic compounds in the ethanol/water (80:20, v/v) extracts prepared from the winemaking residues of whole pomace, seeds, skins, stems from red wine production, red and white wine lees and diatomaceous earth used in red wine production.
In related news, Ruth Margalef Kriesten, CEO at Biogründl, previously spoke to us about using corks from wine bottles and transforming it for cosmetic molecules. The company finds that corks contain high levels of antioxidants.
By Venya Patel
