Sustainable Sources for Cosmetic Ingredients – Evaluation of the Biomass of Crete as a Model Region

Special Article: Biomass Production

Ann Agric Crop Sci. 2022; 7(4): 1123.

Sustainable Sources for Cosmetic Ingredients – Evaluation of the Biomass of Crete as a Model Region

Wanninger A¹*, Katerinopoulos HE², Christoforou G², Kräling R¹, Köhler TH¹, Poth K¹ and Spüntrup FS¹

¹Department of Faculty of Chemistry, Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany

²Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Greece.

*Corresponding author: Andrea Wanninger Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry/ Consumer Products, Adlerstr. 32, 47798 Krefeld, Germany

Received: November 10, 2022; Accepted: December 21, 2022; Published: December 27, 2022

Abstract

Sustainable sourcing of cosmetic ingredients nowadays includes the use of bio-based raw materials. In order to avoid waste and to use by-products of agriculture in the best possible way, a Material and Energy Management (MEM) system of the bioeconomy has to be established. As a new approach towards sources for cosmetic basics and actives, an evaluation of local biomass was carried out in this study, using the Greek island of Crete – which has a rich endemic flora – as a model region.

Introduction

Sustainability is key to the cosmetic industry today. Not only renewable raw materials are used but the whole product life cycle of the finished product is considered. During production of cosmetic ingredients from natural sources often waste or byproducts are generated, such as the 17 million tons of empty fruit bunches from 60 million tons palm oil production [1] or the residues of sugar cane or sugar beets, yielding only 160 kg of sugar from 1 ton of beets [2]. The total biomass which is used to produce natural cosmetic ingredients sustainably should therefore be considered and all parts of the agricultural biomass or wild-grown plants should be used in the best way applying the criteria and methods of bioeconomy. Nowadays, research is focussing on a value chain for biomass with optimized material flow, thus building a sustainable bio-based economy »from feedstock to product« with regional supply of the feedstock and regional manufacture of value-added chemical specialties.

Cosmetic ingredients are only one example of this revolution in the industry. Plastic or food additives can also be produced from biomass as well as bio-based polymers and platform chemicals as alcohols and acids. And the technologies to come are biorefineries using »biosyngas« (carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide and hydrogen) to produce chemicals and the valorization of waste or sources as lignocellulose. Avoiding waste or even using it as a carbon source for chemicals is also one of the principles of Green Chemistry.

In this paper the island of Crete serves as a model region for the evaluation of its biomass which is suitable for cosmetic ingredients. Interesting about this biggest Greek island is the relative isolation and special climate with about 300 days of sunshine per year. Crete is like a small continent. Cretan olive oil is believed to be the best and healthiest in the world; and the flora is rich with more than 200 endemic plants, many of them with healing properties and effects on skin and hair. Unlike cosmetic actives from other regions of the world, the Cretan flora is so far rarely used in cosmetic products but is worth investigating.

On The Topology and Flora of Crete [5]

Coordinates: 35°13‘N 24°55‘

Area: 8,335.88 km² (3,218.50 sq miles)

Highest elevation: 2,456 m (8,058 ft)

Population (2011): 623,065

Density: 75/km² (190/sq miles)

The total area of Crete is 8,336 sq km and constitutes 6.3 % of the total Greek territory. It is located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea, at a distance of about 160 sq km. from the mainland. Its coastline is more than 1,000 km long. It is bordered by the Cretan Sea to the north and the Lybian Sea to the south. It is surrounded by a number of small islands (Gavdos, Gavdopoula, Chrysi, Koufonisi, Dia, Dyonisades, etc.). The length of the island from west to east is 256 km. Its largest width of 57 km is located in the Prefecture of Heraklion and the smallest width of 12 km in the Prefecture of Lasithi. Its morphology includes three zones: the mountainous zone, with an altitude of 400m and above, the semi mountainous zone with 200-400 m and the level area which is up to 200 m above sea level. The first two zones cover about three-fifths of the island. The mountainous area is 49% of the island’s area. The predominant mountain ranges are Lefka Ori (2,452 m), Psiloritis (2,456 m) and Dikti (2,148 m).

The mountains surround fruitful plateaus like Omalos, Lasithi and Nida. The Messara in the south is the biggest plain of the island with about 140 km 2. It is used intensively for agriculture.

The island of Crete does not have forests like middle and western Europe. The predominant tree is the olive tree. Some Calabrian pines (Pinus brutia), a few cypresses (Cypressussempervirens) and oak trees are found in the Western mountains. Eastern Crete is very dry. Besides some olive trees and Cretan date palms (Phoenix theophrasti) at the beach of Vai, only bushes like phrygana and macchie grow there. Carob trees (Ceratonia siliqua) and Planes (genus Platanus) are found in areas with more water.

Regarding elevational species richness and endemism patterns on Crete [4] researchers found that »total and subendemic (SUBE) vascular plant species richness monotonically decreases with increasing elevation in Crete, while Single Island Endemic species (SIE) show a unimodal response to elevational gradient...

Moving upwards, following mountain uplift, the Cretan flora was impoverished as a result of environmental filtering and the mountain areas have been mainly colonized by tolerant lowland species. As a result of island and elevation driven ecological isolation synergy, Cretan highlands are more effectively isolated than Cretan lowlands, resulting in increased species impoverishment with increasing elevation...« Their results also support that »tolerant plant species able to withstand the harsh climatic conditions with increasing elevation had to face reduced interspecific competition. Ecological release triggered by increased species impoverishment with increasing altitude has led to elevational range expansion of Cretan plants« and they conclude that »the whole Aegean archipelago, including Cretan area, has a complex geological history and ... there is not only one overriding factor that defines the response of plant species to environmental gradients on continental island systems. A corresponding combination of factors, each one with different intensity and duration of influence depending largely on historical parameters, determines elevational patterns of plant species richness and endemism in Crete«.

The species that grows on the island and the elevation (when known) that each species preferentially grows at are described in a table which is provided separately [5].

Biomass [6,-8]

Biomass is defined as the total of plants - wild and agriculturally cultivated - and wooden substances growing in a certain region. Almost 94% of biomass on our planet consists of lignocellulose, hemicellulose and cellulose. The agricultural products include cultivated crops, vegetables and fruits, nuts, mushrooms, herbs, spices and flowers. A sustainable use of biomass includes the evaluation of which parts of the bio-based material can be used for which purpose. The right »mix« has to be decided for every plant. Possible uses are: food, feed, materials, chemicals, fuel and energy. A value-added use is specialty chemicals like cosmetic ingredients.

Currently for this purpose biomass of the first generation, such as vegetable oils, wheat, corn and sugar, is processed. A development ongoing investigates the use of biomass of the second generation, such as biomass residues from agriculture and forestry.

Olive oil and olives are the most important agricultural product of Crete, followed by oranges and other citrus fruits. Wine and raisins are less important. Bananas, cucumbers and tomatoes are grown in greenhouses in southern Crete, mostly for export. In the Prefecture of Rethymnoavocado products are famous.

Sustainable Production Methods and Cycles

Cellulose forms the main part of the biomass worldwide, and it is present in hardwood as well as in straw or other parts of cultivated plants. Cellulose can be decayed to sugars which are substrates for fermentation processes. More and more research is going on to produce bulk or fine chemicals from these sources.

Cosmetic ingredients can be found in otherwise neglected parts of the plants. Grass and leaves contain valuable ingredients like secondary phenols or proteins which can be extracted in some cases. Pits and kernels either contain oils or can be milled to be used as peeling particles.

Even the residues of leaves and kernels or twigs and trimmings can find their way into specialty chemicals as cosmetic ingredients by combusting them to biosyngas and energy first, followed by fermentation [9].

Challenges from Tourism

Due to tourism with more than 3.3 million visitors per year which is the biggest source of income, the island of Crete faces two major problems: Energy and waste! Not only that some of civilization s waste is simply thrown into small canyons and valleys, it is also combusted in open fires. Agricultural residues are also combusted by the farmers in open fires.

This situation could be changed to create a sustainable solution by producing biosyngas out of municipal and agricultural waste and then transforming this gas into valuable chemical substances by fermentation processes. The thriving tourism industry in the island of Crete, combined with a number of commercial activities, has created a challenge to the Cretan power system. Local demand for electricity has been rising over the past years, with the localconventional power stations of the Public Power Corporation supplying 514.4 MW in June 2000 and facing an annual growth in demand averaging 7–8 % over the last fourteen years.

The additional need of power supply is estimated to be 280 MW in addition to the current installed capacity of 532 MW. The high cost of supplying power to Crete is due to the fact that it includes transportation of fuel oil from the mainland resulting in a substantial net loss to the company.

Therefore, the installation of a biomass based local power plant appears to be a promising solution for the energy problem of Crete.

Problem: Open Fires

Combustion tests performed on biomass samples (vine shoot, olive wood, citrus wood, kernel wood) indicated that the content of combustibles in all samples tested is more than 95 % on a dry basis, a fact that provides evidence for the good quality of these biofuels. The net calorific value of the fuels ranges from approximately 3,500 to 4,500 kcal/kg and is significantly higher than that of Greek lignite (1,000 to 1,700 kcal/kg).

A number of studies emphasizing on the exploitation of the biomass of Crete have been reported in the literature [4,5]. A recent study revealed the extent of the contribution of biomass burning –including wild fires – to aerosol chemical composition in air masses [6].

Olive Oil – The Lifeblood of Crete

When thinking about typical Cretan products, the first is the valuable Cretan olive oil. The cultivation of olives has an amazing history of more than 5,500 years on the island. On average every resident owns 30 trees. In total about 20 million olive trees are said to grow on about 44 % of the arable land. With this amount of trees every year 150,000 to 180,000 tons of olive oil are produced. The weight of harvested olives is even higher, since 4-7 kg of olives are needed to produce a litre of oil. Every tree carries about 20 kg of fruits [10]. The world-wide olive oil production is about 2.9 million tons. 95 % of the 750 million olive trees grow in the mediterranean area, 40 % thereof in Spain. Greece is the third largest producer [11]. The most olive trees in Crete are of the species »Koroneiki« (80-90 %), but in some districts there are rare species such as the »Tsounati« olive. An olive of the species »Koroneiki« has an oil content of about 22 %. This represents about 0.5 g oil. In addition to the oil the olive consists of water (50 %), sugar (19.1%), cellulose (5.8%) and proteins (1.6 %) [10].

The major fatty acid in the oil is oleic acid and olive oil is rich in antioxidants. Of course olive oil itself is used for cosmetic applications such as moisturizing creams, mild eye-make-up remover, shaving oil for sensitive skin, in lip balms together with bees wax or in a peeling containing sea salt. But in order to find more sustainable cosmetic ingredients we should take a look at the process of producing olive oil.

In the majority of cases the harvest of olives starts in November. The olives are hand-picked carefully with the help of large blankets. To avoid bitterness in the olive oil, the olives have to be washed and separated from the leaves and the twigs. Also the chlorophyll would reduce the quality of the oil. After washing, the olives are placed in the grinding pan, where they get crushed and mixed. Nowadays the olive oil is separated from the olive-water and the pomace by decantation. The key is to investigate the waste or by-products which are created in this process. Olive oil production by-products: The average annual production of by-products is estimated at 2.3 million tons p.a. with a yearly increase of 8%. The most well known by-product is the kernel (olive pit), with a thermal value of 3,500-4,000 kcal/ kg. Since the specific weight of kernel is 600-700 kg/m³, it is obvious that it has the relative advantage of large quantity storage as opposed to other fuels such as wood wastes.

Other by-products include the olive husk, the residual pulp of the olive which is processed to yield olive pit; trimmed leaves and twigs, disposed of by the mills and olive tree prunings, disposed of by the farmers locally in open fires. Olive pulp is used as a high-fiber additive for animal feed.

The liquid aqueous fraction contains a high amount of toxic compounds, such as phenols. This waste should not be disposed in the environment.

The Fraunhofer IGB developed a concept to extract the utilisable substances like polyphenols which can be used in the cosmetic industry. The remaining solids can be used to generate biogas by bacterial fermentation. In ten days it is possible to produce 980 litres of biogas per kilogram of olive-paste. For comparison only: 680 litres of biogas per kilogram can be obtained from maize silage [15].

The leaves can be sources of ingredients for cosmetics. The major cosmetic ingredient of the olive leaf is oleuropein which is an antioxidant. The content of oleuropein is much higher in the olive leaf than in the fruit. Other substances included in the leaves are: Phenols (hydroxytyrosol, caffeic acid), flavonoids (olivine, rutin, hesperidin, quercetin), hydrocarbons and organic acids.A possible drawback is the dark colour of the extract. The pits are separated in the oil mill. Since they have a higher caloric value (5.6 kWh/kg) compared to air-dry wood (4-4.4 kWh/kg) they are an alternative biomass fuel to wood-pellets [12]. Olive biomass (pits and trester) is already traded worldwide. But the olive pits can also be used directly for cosmetics. If they are milled to a fine powder they work excellently as peeling bodies in a cosmetic peeling. Mango peels and seed kernel powders have already been analysed and the rheological, physical, sensory and antioxidant properties have been evaluated [13]. And of course the usage of olive oil itself for cosmetic applications could be intensified. The Cretans have recognized the nutritional and medicinal benefits of olive compositions for centuries. And in fact the olive oil contains many ingredients which are valuable for the cosmetic industry.