Recent Articles of Interest

Helix Aspersa Muller is a creature that has survived extreme climatic conditions for more than 600 million years. This little gastropod or mollusk has an original defensive system in the form of an intricate glycol-conjugate secretion which helps the creature rapidly repair any damage to its skin.

The investigation of the possible uses of this secretion goes back some 15 years. A Chilean enterprise has conducted research and developed a biotechnology to gather the secretion. They do this by submitting the snails to controlled stress similar to what they have to respond to when a predator threatens them, or when they emerge into an atmosphere saturated with oxygen radicals after hibernating. This enterprise has also developed a biotechnology to ensure the bio-availability of the secretion deep within the skin where it interacts with target cells to recover skin damage.

Natural Skin Treatment with Biological Ingredients

For many years, numerous researchers have analyzed snails and their secretions. The snails were considered manageable creatures, allowing research and the modeling of natural functions thought to be more intricate in vertebrates. The researchers have found molecules in the snail secretion now being considered worthwhile candidates for the development of drugs, and natural skin care treatments.

Their findings have resulted in a new frontier in science called the "sweet science of glycobiology", a blossoming branch that intends to understand how sugars in the body -called glycans- contribute to human health and contain information needed to define the complexity of life as that of DNA and proteins. It also sheds light onto the potential explanation of a more humble observation by layman people. The observation that manipulating snails while breeding them for their value as a gourmet delicacy, produced soft hands and scarless healing of small injuries, cuts and scrapes.

The Natural Way to Healthy Skin

Also, it could explain the further realization that snails injured by birds are able to recover some of their parts -eyes and mouth- by bubbling onto themselves what appears to be the same fluid mentioned above. The snails also use it to crawl more easily, hold onto something while on a vertical position defying gravity, to seal themselves into their shell by the dry fluid on the opercula, or to persuade bugs to stay away from them. This biological secretion is the one that has this fascinating, healing effect on human skin.

Two patents of invention for a process designed to gather the fluid and its use in cosmetic or skin care solutions have been authorized. One to a Chilean doctor, in Chile in 1995, for a process to gather the secretions by agitating snails in warm water and then separating the mucin, for the use of the extract in a skin care cream made with petrochemical and other artificial components. The second to a Spanish oncologist, in the USA in 1996, for a process whereby snails are stressed mechanically to induce the production of their fluid, and the use of it for the therapeutic and cosmetic treatment of skin, mainly for radiodermatitis. There is also a patent granted in the US in 2000 for the use of an intricate glyco-molecule, taken from the tissues and also present in the mucins of an African snail, as a solution to inhibit angiogenesis.