Phytochemicals: phenolics

In part 1 of this post we discussed primary and secondary plant metabolites.

We published a series of posts about different classes of phytochemicals before they became the talk of the day. It’s main purpose was to introduce the different classes of active ingredients in plants and herbs that are suitable for skin care and to help our readers choose the suitable carrier/

Skinchakra ScienceDr. Elham Eghbali

Today we'll discuss one of the largest and most exciting groups of phytochemicals: phenolics.

So far over 8000 phenolics are known and the research is still ongoing.

All of the phenolics have the "phenol" as a backbone in common. Phenol ironically is an extremely poisonous and carcinogenic chemical as a standalone molecule.

Plant phenolics are basically divided into simple phenolics and polyphenolics

Simple phenolics are hardly used in cosmetics but they are being used in drugs. They are divided to 3 subgroups that you perhaps have heard about them.

In the next post we will discuss these subgroups in detail and then we will go to the most exciting part which is the polyphenols.