Hippophae Rhamnoides Water, commonly known as sea buckthorn water, is an aqueous solution obtained from the steam distillates of the entire Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea buckthorn) plant. This ingredient contains trace amounts of water-soluble bioactive compounds, including vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from all parts of the plant. It is primarily used as a fragrance and solvent in cosmetic formulations, offering moisturizing, soothing, and balancing properties, making it ideal for a wide range of skincare products.
Chemical Composition and Structure
This water is rich in natural antioxidants such as flavonoids, vitamin C, and small amounts of fatty acids and minerals. These compounds work together to protect the skin from free radicals and provide light hydration and regeneration. While less concentrated than oils or extracts, sea buckthorn water offers nourishing and revitalizing benefits due to its bioactive content.
Physical Properties
Sea buckthorn water is a slightly colored liquid with a faint natural fragrance from the plant. It is fully water-soluble and used in formulations for toners, lotions, and refreshing sprays. Its lightweight texture makes it ideal for hydrating and soothing the skin without leaving a heavy residue.
Production Process
Hippophae Rhamnoides water is produced through steam distillation of the whole plant, including leaves, fruits, and branches. This process captures the volatile and water-soluble compounds from the plant, creating a nutrient-rich aqueous solution.
Harvesting the Fruit: Hippophae rhamnoides fruits are harvested when ripe. It is essential to follow sustainable harvesting practices to ensure the quality of the plant material.
Cleaning: After harvesting, the fruits are cleaned to remove dirt, residues, and impurities. This step is crucial to ensure that the final water is of high quality.
Extraction: The cleaned fruits undergo an extraction process where they are immersed in hot or cold water for a specified period. During this process, the bioactive compounds, vitamins, and minerals are transferred from the inside of the fruits to the water.
Filtration: Once the extraction process is complete, the mixture is filtered to remove solids and residues, resulting in a clear water rich in nutrients.
Quality Control and Packaging: Finally, Hippophae rhamnoides water undergoes quality control checks to verify its purity, efficacy, and compliance with standards. After analysis, it is packaged in bottles or appropriate containers for distribution and use in cosmetic products and dietary supplements.
Applications
Moisturizing and Soothing Products: With its light hydrating and calming properties, it is often used in soothing products for sensitive or irritated skin, such as toners and lotions.
Refreshing Facial Sprays: Sea buckthorn water is ideal for use in refreshing facial sprays that provide relief and hydration throughout the day.
INCI Functions:
Fragrance. It plays a very important role in the formulation of cosmetic products as it provides the possibility of enhancing, masking or adding fragrance to the final product, increasing its marketability. It is able to create a perceptible pleasant odour, masking a bad smell. The consumer always expects to find a pleasant or distinctive scent in a cosmetic product.
Skin conditioning agent. It is the mainstay of topical skin treatment as it has the function of restoring, increasing or improving skin tolerance to external factors, including melanocyte tolerance. The most important function of the conditioning agent is to prevent skin dehydration, but the subject is rather complex and involves emollients and humectants that can be added in the formulation.
Perfuming. Unlike fragrance, which can also contain slightly less pleasant or characteristic odours, the term perfume indicates only very pleasant fragrances. Used for perfumes and aromatic raw materials.
Agente aromatizzante. Lo scopo di questo ingrediente è modificare la soluzione per conferire un certo aroma. Gli estratti di aromi naturali hanno un costo piuttosto elevato quindi le industrie cosmetiche e farmaceutiche ricorrono a sostanze sintetizzate che abbiano caratteristiche sensoriali per lo più simili agli aromi naturali o naturalmente equivalenti. Questo ingrediente è isolato attraverso processi chimici o è sintetizzato da sostanze chimiche. E' anche chiamato Aroma.
CAS: 90106-68-6 290-292-8
Health and Safety Considerations
Safety in Use
Sea buckthorn water is considered safe for cosmetic use. It is well tolerated by most skin types and poses no significant risks of irritation or sensitization. Major regulatory authorities, such as the European Union and the FDA, approve the use of this water in skincare products.
Allergic Reactions
Allergic reactions to this ingredient are extremely rare, but as with all natural ingredients, it is recommended to perform a patch test before use, especially on very sensitive skin.
Toxicity and Carcinogenicity
It is considered safe for topical use and beneficial for the skin due to its moisturizing and soothing properties.
Environmental Considerations
Sea buckthorn water is obtained from a renewable and sustainable source. The steam distillation process has a minimal environmental impact and utilizes the entire plant, reducing waste and maximizing production efficiency.
Regulatory Status
Sea buckthorn water is approved for use in cosmetic products by major regulatory authorities, including the European Union and the FDA in the United States.
Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) Studies
From the leaves and berries of the sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is extracted chloroform and n-hexane, components with intense antibacterial activity (1).
It is a rich source of vitamins C and E, carotenoids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, organic acids, amino acids, sterols, triterpenols and isoprenols (2) with an antioxidant activity.
The berries produce an oil containing carotenoids, palmitic, palmitolic and oleic acid, while the seed oil is composed of linoleic, linolenic and oleic acid as main components (3) .
This oil has traditionally been used to improve blood circulation and for the treatment of dermatological problems including wounds, gastritis, peptic ulcers, uterine erosion and inflammatory disorders of the genital organs (4).
Sea buckthorn has significant cardioprotective activity and a positive effects on the healing of the cardiovascular system, including inhibition of platelet activation (in particular platelet aggregation), reduction of cholesterol concentration, blood pressure and antioxidant action (5).
In this study, a positive evaluation of the topical effects on atopic lesions as it improved the severity of dermatitis by reducing epidermal thickness (6).
The results of this study on the extract of Sea buckthorn, provide a basis for affordable, low side-effect therapy for the treatment of psoriasis (7).
Cosmetics
It produces a regenerating effect on the skin produced by carotenoids, vitamin E and unsaturated fats contained in the pulp and seeds.
Other applications
It is placed in foods, candies, to give a particular taste.
Sea buckthorn studies
References_______________________________________________________________________
(1) Qadir MI, Abbas K, Younus A, Shaikh RS. Report - Antibacterial activity of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Pak J Pharm Sci. 2016 Sep;29(5):1711-1713.
Abstract. Objective of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial activity of Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) berries and leaves against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by using the standard disc diffusion method. Chloroform, n-hexane and aqueous extract of the plant parts were used. Doses of 2mg/ml, 4 mg/ml and 6mg/ml were tested against the microorganism, and the zone of inhibition was compared against the standard drug vancomycin. Results indicated that n-hexane and chloroform extracts of berries and n-hexane extract leaves showed significant (p<0.05) antibacterial activity comparable with vancomycin. It was concluded from the study that extracts berries and leaves of Hippophae rhamnoides have antibacterial activity against MRSA.
(2) Yang B, Kallio H. Supercritical CO2-extracted sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) oils as new food ingredients for cardiovascular health. In: Proceedings of Health Ingredients of Europe, Paris; 2002, p. 17–19.
(3) Süleyman, Z., Erdemoğlu, N., Küsmenoğlu, Ş., Gürbüz, İ., Yesilada, E., and Çalış, İ. Fatty acid composition and anti-ulcerogenic activity of Hippophae rhamnoides fruit oil. J Fac Pharm Gazi Univ. 1998; 15: 11–17
(4) Li, T.S.C. and Wang, L.C.H. Physiological components and health effects of ginseng, echinacea and sea buckthorn. in: G. Mazza (Ed.) Functional foods, biochemical and processing aspects. Technomic Publishing Company, Lancaster, PA; 1998: 329–356
Abstract. Background: Increased consumer´s interest in health has driven the development of foods that offer specific beneficial effects. The list of foods and ingredients includes essential and non-essential nutrients, plant and marine components, whole foods, microorganisms, microalgae and technological approaches. Traditionally, health outcomes focussed on the prevention of chronic diseases but health targets have expanded to cover areas such as brain health, inflammation, eye health, women´s health, healthy ageing and beauty. Objective: This review highlights, from a nutritional biochemistry perspective, differential aspects on designing and interpreting human studies to support the health effects of functional foods. Results: Despite the available evidence from in vitro, animal and observational studies, welldesigned human studies are necessary to support the health effects of functional foods. Intervention trials with foods are complex as they imply limitations due to methodological, food-related and host-related factors. The use of responsive, validated and clinically relevant markers becomes essential even though there is a lack of reliable biomarkers of exposure for many bioactives. Furthermore, the effect of modulating factors such as subclinical inflammation, gut microbiota and genetic variability should be taken into account. Multiple indicators may provide a more reliable alternative to assess physiological processes while emerging biomarkers (microRNAs, epigenetic changes) constitute a promising approach. Additionally, the magnitude of the change is critical to support any health effect although interventions may have a limited clinical impact but be epidemiologically relevant. Also, based on the available data, the premise that bioactivescontaining foods are safe may be questionable. Conclusion: An integrated approach including multiple biomarkers, genetic variability, effect of gut microbiota and risk/benefit assessment should be used to support the potential health effects of functional foods.
(5) Olas B. Sea buckthorn as a source of important bioactive compounds in cardiovascular diseases. Food Chem Toxicol. 2016 Nov;97:199-204. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2016.09.008. Epub 2016 Sep 9. PMID: 27616182.
(6) Hou DD, Di ZH, Qi RQ, Wang HX, Zheng S, Hong YX, Guo H, Chen HD, Gao XH. Sea Buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides L.) Oil Improves Atopic Dermatitis-Like Skin Lesions via Inhibition of NF-κB and STAT1 Activation. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2017;30(5):268-276. doi: 10.1159/000479528. Epub 2017 Sep 6. PMID: 28873377.
(7) Boca AN, Ilies RF, Saccomanno J, Pop R, Vesa S, Tataru AD, Buzoianu AD. Sea buckthorn extract in the treatment of psoriasis. Exp Ther Med. 2019 Feb;17(2):1020-1023. doi: 10.3892/etm.2018.6983.
Abstract. Psoriasis is one of the most common chronic dermatological conditions, with a strong impact on patients' quality of life. Currently, psoriasis benefits from conventional therapy with a high rate of adverse effects and an increase in non-compliance and self-medication of patients. As such, there is a need to pinpoint low-adverse effects and accessible remedies for this condition. Our single-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed the effect of sea buckthorn extract on psoriasis lesions in previously untreated patients. Our results showed an improvement in Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) scores and in Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores when compared to the baseline values, as well as at the 4- and 8-week time marks for the lesions treated with sea buckthorn extract. By contrast, the measurements for the placebo treated lesions showed no alteration at the 4-week mark, and significant worsening at the end of the trial. These findings provide a solid, optimistic base for the in-depth research of sea buckthorn as an adjuvant or a component in psoriasis care protocols.
Hippophae Rhamnoides Water 
