Sodium Hyaluronate, also known as Hyaluronic Acid Sodium or HA Sodium, is an essential ingredient in dietary supplements. It is a natural polysaccharide found in the human body that helps to lubricate joints, skin and eyes. but why does the price of sodium hyaluronate vary so much?
Differences in sodium hyaluronate levels
First of all, the biggest difference comes from the level of sodium hyaluronate, the use of raw materials determines the level of raw materials needed, sodium hyaluronate is commonly used in cosmetics, medical tissue engineering, plastic surgery, food; medical tissue engineering level can be divided into excipient level, injection level according to the level of possible contact with the human body; these differences are due to its application in different products in different occasions, the safety, performance indicators of concern are different. performance indicators are different. Specifically.
Adding sodium hyaluronate to food additives plays as a nutritional base use. Sodium hyaluronate is used orally to hydrate the body, improve bone and joint function, and protect the gastric mucosa, among many other benefits. The purity requirements for sodium hyaluronate in food are not high, and the requirements for microorganisms will be higher. The presence of extreme PH and other probiotics in the digestive tract makes it possible to give full play to its functions without making strict requirements for proteins and other substances, so a low purity product will meet the needs of most manufacturers.
But for skin care grade ingredients, skin care products are products applied to the surface of the skin, the skin surface is not so extreme environment, especially for some sensitive skin, too many unclear impurities is the risk of triggering skin reactions. So the cosmetic grade will have higher requirements for content. But because it only works on the surface of the skin, when the skin is not broken, the skin itself can play a good immune function, skin care ingredients will not easily penetrate the location of the living cells deep in the skin, this time a little impurity does not affect the safety and efficacy. Therefore, the cosmetic grade sodium hyaluronate is relatively similar to the food grade index.
The addition of sodium hyaluronate to medical products plays a role in tissue filling, lubrication and anti-adhesive effects. Such application will break the barrier function of human epidermis or mucosa and come into direct contact with living cells. At this time, trace impurities may activate the body's immune system, causing inflammation, allergy, hemolysis and other adverse reactions; therefore, the choice of raw materials will be more stringent, requiring the selection of pharmaceutical-grade sodium hyaluronate to be added, and medical-grade sodium hyaluronate will have strict control over some indicators that trigger adverse reactions, including heteroprotein content, endotoxin, hemolysis and so on, and also according to the depth of possible contact with tissue The range of indicators varies according to the depth of possible tissue contact. These indicators are strictly controlled by the level of raw materials, added to the drug sodium hyaluronate, must meet the requirements of the pharmacopoeia.
Therefore, there is a clear difference in the regulatory level of sodium hyaluronate.
In comparison, it is also this strict and standardized management and the meticulous and scientific nature of the process steps that ensure batch-to-batch stability, controllable risk and the achievement of product safety indicators. At the same time the process steps are scientifically designed, statistically in line with the laws of science, after a large number of verification. Also the pre-market product development process is not without comprehensive toxicology, clinical efficacy and safety studies to ensure that the products produced through the above steps are indeed compounded as expected.
Differences in molecular weight of sodium hyaluronate
I believe we are all familiar with the molecular weight of sodium hyaluronate. The difference in molecular weight is mainly due to the difference in the number of structures of sodium hyaluronate. The molecular structure of sodium hyaluronate HA (Hyaluronic acid) is composed of N-acetylglucosamine and glucuronic acid connected by β-1,4 and β-1,3 glycosidic bonds alternately. The molecule is composed of two monosaccharides in a 1:1 molar ratio. The disaccharides composed of two monosaccharides are the basic structure of the polysaccharide chain.
These disaccharide structures are like bricks for building a house, the same material, and the final product is a house or a high-rise depending on how many component units there are. Sodium hyaluronate has a wide range of molecular weights from 1 kDa ~ 3,000 kDa.
For different applications, the need for molecular weight is different. For skin care products, sodium hyaluronate mainly plays a moisturizing function. High and medium molecular weight sodium hyaluronate (600KDa~3,000KDa) achieves moisturization by forming a film on the surface of the skin and preventing the evaporation of water inside the skin; small molecule sodium hyaluronate (10KDa~600KDa) can penetrate into the dermis of the skin and work inside the skin to lock moisture, promote skin metabolism and make the skin moist and smooth, but its ability to prevent The ability of water evaporation is very poor. Once the molecular weight progresses and the possibility of transdermal absorption is further improved, sodium oligomeric hyaluronate (1KDa~10KDa) enters the inner skin for deep moisturization, and also has various effects such as scavenging free radicals and cell damage repair.
In medical aesthetics, large-molecule hyaluronic acid plays a filling role, its texture is hard and its maintenance time is long, and it is usually injected into the middle to deep layers of dermal tissue. Sodium hyaluronate is a small molecule that can replenish the missing water in the dermis and repair the damaged skin, playing the role of moisturizing and rejuvenating the skin. Generally speaking, the larger the molecular weight (particles) of hyaluronic acid, the stronger the shaping effect, the longer the maintenance time, and the deeper the level of injection.
From the production process of hyaluronic acid, we can easily see that hyaluronic acid is produced by microbial fermentation, and the produced ones are generally large and medium molecules. The small molecule hyaluronic acid is further processed on the technology of large molecule, and decomposed by bioenzymatic method or acid-base treatment. The increased process will undoubtedly cause the decrease of raw material recovery rate, which in turn will cause the increase of cost. Therefore, hyaluronic acid of small molecular weight is often more expensive and is also called hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, which is slightly different from other molecular weights.
Therefore, in terms of price, it is generally the higher control level of sodium hyaluronate that is more expensive and the lower molecular weight sodium hyaluronate that is more expensive. This is the reason why there is a wide variety of products under the same iusodium hyaluronate name, and therefore the price can vary a hundredfold. Of course, the choice of raw materials should be based on the intended use, for some topical skin products using pharmaceutical-grade sodm hyaluronate business that is trench unmanned, if the injection-grade products used in the cosmetic grade that can only be said to be a straw man!
Here at the Swiftbond Biotechnology , we can guide Swiftbond Brands to choose the right molecular weight for your sodium hyaluronate products.
If you would like to manufacture Sodium Hyaluronate products, Please call us on WhatsApp, or click here to request a quote and we promise to help you through your manufacturing journey.