GC-FID as a complementary tool to understand fatty acids’ role in cellular antioxidant activity: a pathway towards understanding iROS production in cells exposed to essential oils for cosmeceutical applications

In the cosmeceutical industry, the development of various products relies heavily upon essential oils due to two crucial reasons: first the eco-sustainability drive that demands the application of natural products in all formulations and secondly their intrinsic aromatic characteristics and the beneficial biological properties normally apported to these compounds. However, they aren’t without drawbacks as they can induce various adverse reactions when in contact with the skin, namely dermal reactions and contact dermatitis, with most of these problems being associated with the essential oils’ oxidation. With that in mind, most compounds are tested for their Cellular Antioxidant Capacity (CAA) to ascertain if they are involved in the formation of intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (iROS) in the cytoplasmatic environment of skin related cells. However, while the data generated from this assay may be crucial for the cosmeceutical industry, it lacks a basal understanding of the mechanism behind the result observed.