Polar lipids in cosmetics: recent trends in extraction, separation, analysis and main applications

Demand for active, natural, safe and biomimetic (similar to human molecules) plantderived cosmetic ingredients is always greater because consumers are increasingly suspicious of the potential toxicity of current ingredients. in this context, interest has increased for polar lipids like ceramides, sphingolipids or glycolipids that share structural properties with the skin lipids. in the same manner, processes to obtain such lipids should be driven by the principles of green chemistry and sustainable development. the identified needs are biodegradability, biocompatibility, efficiency, quality and profitability. in this research for new and novel natural or ‘green’ compounds, the development of bioactive lipids thanks to ecofriendly processes has obviously intensified, especially for cosmetic and agro-food industries. this paper reviews extraction methods for polar lipids (glycolipids and phospholipids), especially ecoprocesses (supercritical fluid extraction, microwaves, sonication, enzyme extraction…), and promising chromatographic methods like countercurrent chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography or high performance chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry interests of polar lipids for cosmetic industries are exemplified to show their broad applications mostly relying on their amphiphilic properties allowing them to play functional roles (liposome or micelle structures for example) or physiological roles (skin barrier function or anti-ageing effect).