Raj Silpa, Jose Shoma, Sumod U S, Sabitha M
Department of Pharmaceutics, Amrita School of Pharmacy, Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham University, AIMS Health Care Campus, Ponekkara P.O., Kochi, India.
J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2012 Jul;4(3):186-93. doi: 10.4103/0975-7406.99016.
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating atoms and molecules in the nanoscale - 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The world market for products that contain nanomaterials is expected to reach $2.6 trillion by 2015. The use of nanotechnology has stretched across various streams of science, from electronics to medicine and has now found applications in the field of cosmetics by taking the name of nanocosmetics. This widespread influence of nanotechnology in the cosmetic industries is due to the enhanced properties attained by the particles at the nano level including color, transparency, solubility etc. The different types of nanomaterials employed in cosmetics include nanosomes, liposomes, fullerenes, solid lipid nanoparticles etc. Recently, concerns over the safety of such nanocosmetics are raised and have forced the cosmetic industries to limit the use of nanotechnology in cosmetics and for enforcing laws to undergo a full-fledged safety assessment before they enter into the market. In this review, emphasis is made on the types of nanomaterials used in cosmetics by the various cosmetic brands, the potential risks caused by them both to human life and also to the environment and what all regulations have been undertaken or can be taken to overcome them.
纳米技术是一门在纳米尺度上操纵原子和分子的科学——比人类头发的宽度小8万倍。预计到2015年，包含纳米材料的产品的世界市场将达到2.6万亿美元。纳米技术的应用已遍及从电子学到医学等各个科学领域，现在还以纳米化妆品的名义在化妆品领域得到应用。纳米技术在化妆品行业的这种广泛影响归因于纳米级颗粒所具有的增强特性，包括颜色、透明度、溶解性等。化妆品中使用的不同类型的纳米材料包括纳米体、脂质体、富勒烯、固体脂质纳米颗粒等。最近，人们对这类纳米化妆品的安全性提出了担忧，这迫使化妆品行业限制纳米技术在化妆品中的使用，并强制要求在进入市场之前对其进行全面的安全评估。在这篇综述中，重点介绍了各化妆品品牌在化妆品中使用的纳米材料类型、它们对人类生命和环境造成的潜在风险，以及为克服这些风险已经或可以采取哪些法规措施。
