Database/Buffering/Taurine
Mostly natural · ISO 16128

Is Taurine natural?

Mostly. Commercial taurine is made from petrochemical ethylene plus ammonia; only the mineral-derived sulfonate group is counted as natural origin.

INCI nameTaurine
CAS107-35-7
FormulaC2H7NO3S · 125.15 Da
FunctionBuffering
FeedstockIndustrially produced by reacting ethylene oxide (or aziridine)…

How we scored it

Sulfonate SO3H 81 Da (mineral sulfur, natural) + C2H6N aminoethyl backbone 44 Da (ethylene oxide/aziridine + ammonia route, petrochemical) = 125 Da; 81/125 = 0.65.
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

Industrially produced by reacting ethylene oxide (or aziridine) with sodium bisulfite/ammonia to build the aminoethanesulfonic acid skeleton; not commercially extracted from animal tissue despite occurring there naturally.

In plain English

A small amino-sulfonic acid used to steady a formula's pH. Occurs naturally in the body and some seafood, but the version in cosmetics is manufactured in a chemical plant from petrochemical and mineral feedstocks.

Natural alternatives with the same function

Structure

2D structure of Taurine

2-aminoethanesulfonic acid

PubChem CID 1123 ↗

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. 2Taurine. PubChem CID 1123. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
  3. 3TAURINE. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  4. 4TAURINE. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=TAURINE