Amazonian fruit, passion fruit becomes cosmetic with antioxidant property

Native to the Amazon, passion fruit has been studied for its antioxidant and anti-dark spots properties, suitable for cosmetic use. A fruit-based cream is already ready, awaiting approval from Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to be launched on the market.

“Despite being native to the Amazon, there was little research on the sigh passion fruit”, says Ádley Antonini Neves de Lima, who studies the subject and is a professor of pharmacy at UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte).

Lima and his colleagues tested the possibilities of extracting the leaves and the fruit, both with similar results, which led to the formulation of a cosmetic cream.

For now, only works on the leaves have been published. The researcher took four years between designing and completing the research.

According to a survey by consultancy Emerge, Brazil is the world leader in publishing research on Amazonian compounds. Federal universities and public companies published around 1,500 studies on the subject between 2010 and 2020, but only a small portion of the study objects end up becoming a product.

Priscilla Tobias Ribeiro, a master’s student from Lima, brought Pharmakos D’Amazônia, a cosmetics company from Manaus, to the project. Interested in the cream, Pharmakos took over the tests sent to Anvisa.

“The company is also committed to ensuring the use of biodiversity with the preservation of the standing forest”, says Ádley.

Pharmakos has a certified plantation, in which family farmers participate in the supply chain for other cosmetics in the company’s portfolio.

João Tezza, CEO of Dárvore, startup from Manaus of nanoencapsulation of cosmetic actives, evaluates that the segment of natural compounds from the Amazon grows more than the conventional one, but still has a small niche.

“We need to make people understand that this type of product protects the forest.”

He believes that the differential of Amazon biocompound cosmetics must reside in the quality of products made with high technology, which allows direct contact with “nature’s raw material”.

For Fabiana Munhoz, leader of the market access area at Conexsus, an organization that works with community businesses in the Amazon, having the biocompost ready is an important step to bring income to the region, but not the only one.

“You can’t talk about bioeconomy without talking about the inclusion of people who live in the forest”, she says.

Data from the Amazônia 2030 report, published in 2021, show that 64 products from the region generated US$ 298 million (R$ 1.6 billion) in one year, little when compared to the volume handled by the food and cosmetics market, US$ 176, 6 billion (R$ 950 trillion) in the period.