Primarily a natural extracts company for over 50 years, Mane Kancor has delved deeper into the personal care segment in the last decade.
“As most of the natural or botanical extracts have activities beyond their benefits for food, we thought we can leverage our strong expertise to research further and develop unique materials to support the personal care industry.
“In the personal care segment, natural active ingredients have been on the rise for the past five years. It’s a booming trend and there’s a huge CAGR seen here. Consumers now have greater awareness and are looking for ingredients that have activity or performance-driven actives, which prompted us to move towards this sector,” Meenakshi Menon, product manager of Natural Personal Care Ingredients at Mane Kancor, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia.
The firm has its eyes set on three main categories, namely sun care, hair care, and skin care, where “multiple challenges and opportunities” lie.
“Since we are from India, the capital of Ayurveda, we have lots of know-how on different types of raw material available in our regional native environment. So we are combining our knowledge in phytochemistry, extraction and purification, and modern Ayurveda science to create products with proven efficacy.”
For every ingredient that the company develops, it is targeted at giving a solution to an existing challenge or need in the industry — be it a regulatory, performance, or sustainability issue.
One of Mane Kancor’s latest innovations is PURAKAN, which is claimed to be a natural alternative to synthetic anti-dandruff ingredients like zinc pyrithione and piroctone olamine.
PURAKAN is a patented formulation of botanical extracts, including pomegranate peel, corn mint and ajowan, specially selected for their benefits in scalp care. It recently won the 23rd European BSB Innovation Award under the “Natural Products with Functional Benefits” category.
“We started working on it about seven to eight years ago. When zinc pyrithione, which is the most commonly used active ingredient for anti-dandruff, got banned as it is classified as a CMR (Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, and Reprotoxic) substance, there were very few alternatives available. It was a challenge that we wanted to convert into an opportunity by developing something that works with the same efficacy.”
Since its launch last year-end, there has been “significantly great feedback” from customers, leading the company to envision PURAKAN as a key ingredient that is expected to see strong growth in the next two years.
“The ingredient has very high activity to compete with chemical alternatives, so I’m sure we would take some of the market share from the main competitors right now — piroctone olamine and climbazole.”
Pillars of innovation
During the development process of PURAKAN, Mane Kancor focused on three pillars — efficacy that is on par with zinc pyrithione, natural and sustainable, and an ingredient that is safe for hair and scalp.
According to Meenakshi, in vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to prove that the ingredient is as effective as other chemical actives.
Prasobh Prasad, R&D Head of Mane Kancor, added that PURAKAN was tested against Malassezia, a fungus known to be the primary cause of dandruff.
“We did a Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) evaluation of our ingredient against Malassezia. Then we formulated a shampoo and tested it against a market-leading shampoos, and proved that it had superior performance compared to the latter.”
Within seven days of application, the shampoo containing PURAKAN resulted in 96% better itching reduction, 82% better pruritus score (a measurement of the intensity or severity of itching), and 78% better flaking score.
“Typically for shampoos with chemical ingredients or anti-dandruff actives, it is observed that the dandruff immediately comes back after a person stops using it. However, PURAKAN showed continued efficacy even in the post-treatment phase.”
Specifically, during the 2-week relapse phase of the study, participants experienced 45% dandruff reduction, 50% decrease in pruritus score, 46% improved flaking score, and 70% itching reduction.
On the sustainability front, the company initially concentrated on pomegranate fruit due to its high activity for scalp and hair care. But during the research process, the team found that pomegranate peel is a major source of waste in India.
“About 1.5 to 2 tonnes of waste [from pomegranate] are being generated in the food and beverage industry, so we thought to explore whether there was an active that we could develop from the peel — solving both an industry problem and an environmental issue simultaneously.
“That’s when our R&D team did extensive research and were able to extract a polyphenol-rich active from the peel, so we shifted our focus from the fruit to the peel to create a sustainable solution that is not only safe for the scalp but also the planet.”
Additionally, Mane Kancor checked another sustainability box through its backward integration programme involving about 7,000 mint farmers.
“We have the Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA) certification programme, where we work with farmers to have a sustainable sourcing mechanism. The farmers also get benefits from joining this programme,” Prasad said.
Furthermore, PURAKAN has a natural origin index of one. Based on ISO 16128, this indicates that an ingredient fully meets the definition of a “natural ingredient”.
It has also obtained COSMO certification, a globally recognised standard for organic and natural cosmetics. It ensures that products meet specific criteria for ingredients and sustainable production processes.
