This is a question I have just been asked because I had one of my plant extracts analysed, and I was quite surprised by it, because as a chemist I value science as an essential tool in my development work. That does not mean I exclude intuition or inspiration, on the contrary I tend to work with both sides of my brain, emotional and rational.. Anyway I shall give you 4 main reasons why I want to analyse natural ingredients:
-they can be oxidised by air, therefore I want to monitor their oxidation value to see if their quality is still within good parameters (this is applicable to essential oils and vegetable oils). Rancid ingredients are full of free radicals so they end up promoting the oxidation of other ingredients and also the skin aging!
-they can be contaminated with some man made chemical. Recently I had the honeysuckle extract analysed for parabens and parahydroxybenzoic acid because on the web there are bad rumors and I wanted to show for good it is totally untrue.
-they can be adulterated. This is a problem mainly with essential oils such as Neroli or Sandlawood. They are high value and their availability is limited, the fake oils are easy to make and smell quite nice actually.. To me using a fake oil in a natural product is like selling a piece of glass as a diamond, I want to supply the real honest thing...
-they can contain different concentrations of the active so I want to ensure there is a minimum value in the extract. Otherwise the product is not as effective as I want it to be.
I hope this helps you to see how science and nature can work together to achieve top quality products!
