BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods for extraction of biomass. Biomass of most interest is that which contains biologically active extracts suitable for the skin treatment market. The biomass of interest includes botanicals (plants and bioferments thereof), algae (red, brown, green and red, including bioferments thereof), fungi and even animal (insect, crustacean) origin and the use of said extracts in cosmetic preparations prepared by the disclosed method.

These natural product hydrophobic extracts are often used in cosmetic and pharmaceutical application. Natural products, particularly botanically, fungi and algae derived such as flavonoids or flavonoid derivatives, have demonstrable beneficial properties on the skin and hair. For example, these extracts have demonstrated antimicrobial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, enzyme stimulation or inhibition, pigmentation enhancement or control, photoprotective, treatment of skin aging, skin imperfections, dry skin, photodamaged skin, wrinkles, age spots, acne, skin lightening, psoriasis, and atopic dermatosis.

The botanical, algae and fungal species are for example any botanical, algae or fungal species which may server as a source for flavonoid or flavonoid derivatives.

More particularly for example the biomass may be selected from but is not limited to the group consisting of:Acacia senegal, Achillea millefolium, Aloe barbadensis, Ananus sativus, Argania spinosa, Avena sativa, Cassia alata, Cocoa Callus, Cocos nucifera, Bupleurum falcatum, Butyrospermum parkii, Calluna vulgaris, Camellia sinensis, Chondrus crispus, Centella asiatica, Ceratonia siliqua, Cestrum latifolium, Cinnamomum cassia, Citrus limon, Coffea Arabica, Cola acuminate, Cucumis sativus, Durio zibethinus, Glycine soja(soybean),Glycyrrhiza glabra, Gymnema sylvestre, Haslea ostrearia, Heliantus annuus, Hibiscus abelmoschus, Humulus lupulus, Laminaria digitata, Lepidium meyenii, Linum usitatissimum, Macadamia ternifolia, Malva sylvestris, Melissa officinalis, Morus alba, Morus bombycis, Nereocystis luetkeana, Olea europaea, Orthosiphon stamineus, Palmeria palmate, Peucedanum graveolens, Peumus boldus, Pisum sativum, Pueraria lobata, Punicia granatum, Pyrus malus, Rheum palmatum, Rhodiola crenulata, Rosmarinus officinalis, Saxifraga sarmentosa, Sarrcodiotheca gaudichaudii, Scutellaria baicalensis, Serenoa serrulata, Spirulina platensis, Theobroma cacao, Tuber magnatum, Uncaria tomentosa, Vitis vinifera, Ptychopetalum olacoides, Zea maysandZingiber officinale.

In particular extracts from algae are of special interest. For example, extraction ofChondrus crispus, Nereocystic luetkeanaandSarrcodiotheca gaudichaudii, Fucus vesiculosus, Sarcodiotheca gaudichaudii, Ulva lactuca, Laminaria longicruris, Nannochloropsis oculata, Tetraselmis suecicaare of special interest.

Extracts from plants such asCassia alata, Argania spinosaandCocoa Callusare also of preferred interest.

B. Description of Related Art

Extracts may be obtained from the whole plant, algae or fungi (i.e., the entire plant is used to prepare the extract) or from a part of the plant (e.g., leaf, stem, root, flower, seed, sap, bark, etc.). The extracts can also be derived by fermentation which helps to break down the cellular tissue of the algae or plant, thereby possibly increasing the bioavailability of the naturally occurring bioactive targets.

During extraction typically more than one compound is extracted from the botanical or algae and will frequently range from at least 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, or 35 of differing extractants in a single composition.

The skin active targets of particular interest are the flavonoids and flavonoid derivatives.

Typically the plant (or any part of the plant such as the leaves, stems, bark, roots, fruit, flowers or flower buds, seeds, seed pods, sap, whole plant, etc.) is disrupted by mechanical means which results in a puree. The puree is then processed to be substantially free of impurities or undesired solids. The puree can then be poured into a shallow vessel and quickly exposed to low temperature, i.e., flash frozen, for example at −20 degrees centigrade or lower, preferably under a vacuum for removal of water content (lyophilization).

Aqueous, alcoholic, or oil based extraction techniques, or combinations thereof, have also been used in the past and are used on the whole plant or any part thereof of (e.g., leaves, stems, bark, roots, fruit, flowers or flower buds, seeds, seed pods, sap, whole plant, etc.) to produce an extract. In such a process, the desired part of the plant or the whole plant is crushed up (e.g., blender) and then extracted with the desired solvent (e.g., water, alcohol, water/alcohol, or oil based solvents) to obtain the desired extract. The extract can then be stored in liquid form, lyophilized, or subject to further processing techniques (e.g., heating, cooling, etc.). Extraction processes are well-known to those having ordinary skill in the extract field (e.g., maceration, infusion, percolation, digestion, decoction, hot continuous extraction, aqueous-alcoholic extract, counter current extract, microwave assisted extraction, ultrasound extraction, supercritical fluid extracts, phytonic extract (e.g., with hydro-fluoro-carbon solvents), etc.

It is known that certain surfactant water based systems may be used for extraction of various hydrocarbons. For example, Calvert, T. L. et al, AICHE Journal, (1994), Vol, 40, #9, p 1449-1457; Hurter, P. N. et. al. Langmuir 1992, 8, 1291-1299 teach the extraction of hydrocarbons from water waste systems.

Additionally, it is also known that some ethanol derived plant extracts can be solubilized in aqueous solutions containing poly(ethylene-oxide)-poly(propylene oxide) copolymers (V Dinoiu. et al,Revista de Chimie,62/4, 396-400).

Further, U.S. Serial No. 2012/0010390 discloses the use of aqueous two phase systems for isolation of biomolecules or target compounds such as an antibody or a protein from a fermentation broth using ethylene oxide and propylene oxide random copolymers dissolved in one of the liquid phases. PCT application No. WO2012011589 discloses a method for the manufacturing of fat-soluble bioactive substances extracted from microbial cells using an organic solvent in combination with a surfactant.

There are however numerous disadvantages to extracting with solvents or even water especially when the extracts of interest are lipophilic, hydrophobic or amphiphilic. Although water is environmentally friendly, it is limited as an effective extracting solvent when the desired extractants are hydrophobic. Organic solvents are less desirable because of their possible flammability and environmental drawbacks. Furthermore, when the extractants are desired for use in cosmetics, in particular skin active cosmetics such as moisturizes etc., solvents are most undesirable because of their irritating or drying effects on skin. The organic solvent can usually be removed by evaporation but this is an additional step with related economic and environmental costs.

Further there is a need to retrieve more complex targeted biomass extracts which can be obtained through traditional aqueous, glycol or ethanol extractions and preferably accompanied by higher overall concentrations of the targeted extractants. It is of special importance that highly active skin benefit agents are extracted from the biomass such as for example flavonoids and flavonoid derivatives. These actives have been shown to be particularly effective in preventing radical damage on skin incurred from UV exposure and oxidation reactions.

Even though certain skin active targets are known to be secondary metabolites in numerous plants, algae and fungi, prediction of the activity of the total extracts on skin, for example activity in protection against UV and radical induced skin damage is much harder to predict. Changing the extraction medium may give rise to increased amounts of known protectants such as flavonoids but this change will also be impacted by the increase or decrease in unknown co-extractants which in turn may alter the activity of the total extractant on skin. Thus, the need for alternative extraction methods which not only increase the extraction of skin actives but do not negatively impact the overall effect of the total extractants is desired. It would also be highly desirable if the total composition of the extracts e gives overall better performance in protection of skin from the adverse effects of known skin harming agents such as ultraviolet rays, especially UV-B rays. In particular, it would be highly desirable to effectively partition the skin active target molecules without reliance on organic solvents and via an extraction method which achieves higher concentrations of targeted molecules. It would also be desirable for the partitioning matrix itself be suitable for cosmetic applications without further processing and for the partitioning matrix to protect the target molecules from oxidation and light degradation.

For certain biomass materials, extraction processes can retrieve cell toxic components as well as skin beneficial components as the partitioning occurs based on for example, solubility parameters. Thus typical extraction processes frequently do not adequately distinguish between the two (beneficial vs. toxic). The present inventors have found that the present process using the particular nonionic surfactants of interest in many instances excludes the toxic extractants from the total extractant.

Further, it is also highly desirable that the extraction process retrieves relatively low color extractants but still retrieves the important target molecules and that the total extracted materials have high beneficial activity on skin.

Additionally, the extraction process for biomass can be quite time consuming especially in relation to the filtering step (removal of the biomass). For example, aqueous extract of an algae biomass may take as long as three days and use multiple filters to remove the solid biomass from the extracting liquid. It would be highly desirable to improve this filtering step by speeding up the filtering process and the elimination of multiple filters.

