Database/Antioxidant/Sodium Thioglycolate
Mostly petroleum · ISO 16128

Is Sodium Thioglycolate natural?

Mostly not. Sodium counter-ion is mineral-derived; the thioglycolate carbon skeleton traces to petrochemical chloroacetic acid with no natural route.

INCI nameSodium Thioglycolate
CAS367-51-1
FormulaC2H3NaO2S · 114.10 Da
FunctionAntioxidant · Depilatory
FeedstockMade by neutralising thioglycolic acid, itself made from…

How we scored it

Na (23.0 Da, natural mineral) + thioglycolate C2H3O2S (91.1 Da, from petrochemical chloroacetic acid) = 114.1 Da; 23.0/114.1=0.20.
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

Made by neutralising thioglycolic acid, itself made from chloroacetic acid and sodium hydrosulfide, with sodium hydroxide. Only the sodium ion is mineral in origin; the organic backbone is entirely petrochemical.

In plain English

A reducing agent used in perm solutions and hair-straightening or depilatory products to break the bonds that give hair its shape. It's manufactured from petrochemical building blocks and neutralised with a mineral sodium salt.

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Structure

2D structure of Sodium Thioglycolate

sodium 2-sulfanylacetate

PubChem CID 23690444 ↗

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. 2Sodium Thioglycolate. PubChem CID 23690444. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
  3. 3SODIUM THIOGLYCOLATE. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  4. 4SODIUM THIOGLYCOLATE. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=SODIUM%20THIOGLYCOLATE