Xanthan gum is an important ingredient for a broad range of personal care products. It provides an outstanding rheology due to its shear-thinning behaviour. Major advantages of xanthan gum is that it improves texture and gives a pleasant skin feel to the product, while stabilising suspensions, emulsions and foams.
It is compatible and stable in solutions with a high salt concentration as well as in acid or alkaline conditions. Moreover, xanthan gum has the advantage to be used in natural products because it is a polysaccharide, which is produced by natural fermentation.
Jungbunzlauer provides a broad portfolio of xanthan gum types for personal care applications. All of the company's personal care (PC) types feature highest purity including low bacterial plate counts. Moreover, they are free of enzymes such as amylase and cellulase making them compatible in combinations with starch and celluloses. In addition, all personal care grades are Ecocert approved.
Jungbunzlauer supply PC xanthan gum in two particle sizes: XG FNPC (normal, 80 mesh) and XG FFPC (fine, 200 mesh). For transparent products Jungbunzlauer recommends using its clear solution personal care types XG FNCS-PC or FFCS-PC. P types (XG FNCSP-PC and XG FFCSP-PC) feature a reduced shear-thinning property and therefore impart a smoother consistency, excellent pourability and a pleasant skin-feel to cosmetic products.
Xanthan gum shows aggravated dispersibility since it tends to form undesirable lumps in connection with water. One of the key steps to using xanthan gum is to achieve a uniformly smooth and fully hydrated blend. This involves two steps. The first step is to disperse the powder in the make-up water with sufficient agitation and energy to avoid lumping. Secondly, continue mixing until the xanthan particles are fully hydrated and dissolved. An indication of this is the absence of 'fish-eyes'. Although high shear mixing is not absolutely necessary, it will yield the desired results quickly.
Jungbunzlauer has developed an improved easily dispersible form of xanthan gum (XG FEDCS-PC) for personal care products. It is an agglomerated type, which allows an increased rate of hydration at low shear rate without lumping due to the ease of dispersion. Accordingly, this type provides significantly faster viscosity build-up than our standard types (Fig. 1). Additionally, the granular structure of the product avoids the formation of dust and allows easy handling ideal for the manufacturing environment.
