Squalane has been used in cosmetic formulations for many years as a highly effective emollient oil. It is derived from the hydrogenation of squalene which was, for many years, extracted from the liver oil of certain species of deep water sharks.
However, since the early 1990s, squalene has become available in commercial quantities from the unsaponifiable fraction of olive oil refining. Both the shark and olive derived squalene and squalane are chemically identical, but today material of shark liver origin is significantly cheaper. This has led to blends of both qualities of shark derived being passed off as olive based material. Until today there has been no recognised method for determining origin of either squalene or squalane.
History
Ancient fishermen from Japan regularly drank an extract from the livers of deep sea sharks. They called the substance “samedawa” or “cure all”. This extract is one of the richest sources of squalene. In 1906, a Japanese chemist, Dr Mitsumaru Tsujimoto isolated a unique hydrocarbon, naming it squalene, from the Latin root Squalus (shark).
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