Ingredients focus: mother and baby

One result of older parents is that they are often more secure in their careers than they would be at an earlier age, and this means more disposable income to spend on their newborn. As the window of fertility becomes narrower with age, there is also a growing number of single-child families, again increasing the amount of available money to spend on the child. Elsewhere, particularly in developing countries, increased disposable income is resulting in a baby boom. The overall global baby care market has been valued at $47.7 billion and is expected to grow to $66.8 billion by 2017. The growing organic and ‘free-from’ trend has made parents more comfortable about using a wider range of care products on sensitive baby skin. China is obviously an enticing market for personal care manufacturers, even with the country’s one child policy (introduced in 1978). According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country had 71 million children aged 0-4 in 2011, accounting for almost 5% of the total population. Its baby care market was worth RMB 3,837 million in 2011 and is expected to reach RMB 6,497 million in 2017 with a CAGR of 9.17% from 2011 to 2017. Again, this increase in the market is due to a growing baby population and the increased disposable income of people throughout the country. The baby care market has seen a growth in products specifically aimed at babies, in particular baby cosmetics, which tend to have organic ingredients, thus giving parents an increased sense of care. Following is a brief overview of some of the ingredients available on the market to help you create the next wave of leading baby care products energising the soon-tobe $66 billion industry.

Risolat – Sinerga

Oryza sativa, an annual herbaceous plant from the Graminacee family, is the plant that produces the cereal called rice. Of all cereals, rice is the most complete and has a considerable content of fibre, vitamins and various sea salts. The plant has Asian origins: the Chinese started farming it for food in the 6th century BC, as evidenced by numerous Neolithic sites in eastern China. This then spread to Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and finally Europe. From the times of the Ancient Romans to the middle ages, rice was sometimes used to make infusions to relieve stomach aches or, later on, as ingredients in sweets. At the same time, in addition to its use as food, rice started to be used as a cosmetic ingredient due to its particular starch and the precious oil that can be obtained from it. The rice flour and starch, due to their high derma-compatibility, are always widely used in many cosmetic forms such as aspersorium powder, dermal paste and products for baby skin, delicate skin and skin that is prone to redness. Rice in cosmetics has emollient and sebum restitutive properties. The presence of ferulic acid and gamma-oryanzol give the rice bran oil antioxidant and protective properties against UVA rays, responsible for the ageing and photo-ageing of the skin. Rice by-products are therefore highly recommended to formulate cosmetics for dry and sensitive skin as well as the delicate skin of babies. Risolat by Sinerga is a natural composed milk, whose INCI Name is: Oryza Sativa, Hydrolyzed Rice Protein, Potassium Palmitoyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein. It totally reproduces the content of oryza sativa seeds and it contains the main lipids from rice oil (the lipidic fraction derived from refined grains of rice) together with hydrolysed proteins with a powerful efficacy on the skin. Rice oil is also known for its emollient, moisturising, smoothing properties on the skin. Thanks to unsaponifiable and pospholipids fractions, it has emollient and hyposensitising properties. Its composition, well balanced in oleic acid, linoleic, linolenic, palmitic vitamin E, means it is an oil particularly suited to fight against skin ageing, together with several types of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, included g-orizanol. Thanks to its natural components Risolat also enhances skin tanning and prevents the signs of ageing due to photo ageing. In fact the g-oryzanol acts as a good protectant against solar radiation (UVB and UVA) and acts as an effective antioxidant and radical scavenging on the skin. Its high content of vitamin E lecithin helps to enhance skin tone, and is an ideal emollient agent both for dry and impure skin. Rice protein content is a little higher than wheat proteins. Lysine, which is an essential amino acid between cereals, has the higher content and others are well balanced. Rice proteins do not contain gluten fractions, typical of hard and mild wheats, that lead to severe food intolerance.