Database/Chelating/Pentetic Acid
100% petroleum · ISO 16128

Is Pentetic Acid natural?

No. Both the triamine backbone and the five acetic-acid arms come from petrochemical ethyleneamine and chloroacetic acid.

INCI namePentetic Acid
CAS67-43-6
FormulaC14H23N3O10 · 393.35 Da
FunctionChelating
FeedstockSynthesized from diethylenetriamine and monochloroacetic acid, both petrochemical…

How we scored it

DTPA: diethylenetriamine (petrochemical) + 5x chloroacetate arms (petrochemical) -> fully synthetic chelator, no natural fragment.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.

Where it comes from

Synthesized from diethylenetriamine and monochloroacetic acid, both petrochemical intermediates from ethylene and chlorine chemistry. No natural-origin production route is used commercially.

In plain English

A synthetic chelating agent that locks onto trace metal ions in a formula to stop them degrading fragrance or causing discoloration. Made entirely from petroleum-derived chemical building blocks.

CosIng definition: Pentetic Acid is the substituted amine that conforms to the formula:

Natural alternatives with the same function

Structure

2D structure of Pentetic Acid

2-[bis[2-[bis(carboxymethyl)amino]ethyl]amino]acetic acid

PubChem CID 3053 ↗

References

  1. 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
  2. 2Pentetic Acid. PubChem CID 3053. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
  3. 3PENTETIC ACID. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  4. 4PENTETIC ACID. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=PENTETIC%20ACID