'Age-defying' wool protein for hand-and-nail care

"Black boxed" wool protein biotechnology has been rolled out to international markets in ingredients for hand-and-nail care products.

Keratec - a Wool Equities subsidiary - has developed processes to extract wool protein (keratin) ingredients it has promoted as having age-defying, strengthening and softening properties.

The ingredients have been put into a new hand-and-nail care ingredient called Keratec ProSina, which the company said had "particularly strong" scientific proofs underpinning its claims.

The product was launched in the United Kingdom earlier this year with Croda, a global natural products distribution company. The ingredient was also presented to the annual conference of the New Zealand Society of Cosmetics Chemists in Taupo recently.

Up to 95 per cent of wool is keratin proteins and wool can be broken down to individual proteins for sale as "biopolymers", with a side helping of lipids, also attractive as natural compounds.

Keratec has developed technology, which it has kept secret, for recovering from each 1kg of wool 800g of useful proteins and lipids, some of them said to be potentially worth as much as $1000 per kg to cosmetic companies.

The proteins differ from other keratin extracts because they are collected without damaging the amino acids. Other keratin products have involved hydrolisation, that mangles the amino acids.

Keratec has worked out how to make some forms of the protein soluble, so it can be ingested as a dietary supplement to boost joint health.

- NZPA