Why the score varies
This ingredient is made commercially by more than one route, and ISO 16128 scores the feedstock actually used. Without a supplier certificate of origin the value cannot be claimed.
| Route | Feedstock | NOI | Share | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic guaiacol oxidation | petrochemical guaiacol | 0.00 | likely majority (estimated) | |
| Bio-conversion/extraction from ferulic acid | rice or wheat bran ferulic acid | 1.00 | minority, specialty natural-cosmetics supply (estimated) |
How we scored it
Where it comes from
Commodity vanillic acid is most often made by oxidising synthetic guaiacol, the same petrochemical route used for synthetic vanillin. A smaller natural-origin supply is made by extracting or bio-converting ferulic acid from rice or wheat bran.
In plain English
A phenolic acid used in cosmetics that can be made either by chemically processing a petrochemical compound or by converting a natural plant acid from rice or wheat bran. Its natural content depends entirely on which manufacturing route was used.
CosIng definition: Vanillic Acid is the organic compound that conforms to the formula
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Structure
4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid
References
- 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.
- 2Vanillic Acid. PubChem CID 8468. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
- 3VANILLIC ACID. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
- 4VANILLIC ACID. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=VANILLIC%20ACID