Design and Testing of Safer, More Effective Preservatives for Consumer Products

Preservatives
deter microbial growth, providing crucial functions
of safety and durability in composite materials, formulated products,
and food packaging. Concern for human health and the environmental
impact of some preservatives has led to regulatory restrictions and
public pressure to remove individual classes of compounds, such as
parabens and chromated copper arsenate, from consumer products. Bans
do not address the need for safe, effective alternative preservatives,
which are critical for both product performance (including lifespan
and therefore life cycle metrics) and consumer safety. In this work,
we studied both the safety and efficacy of a series of phenolic preservatives
and compared them to common preservatives found in personal care products
and building materials. We quantified antimicrobial activity against Aspergillus brasiliensis (mold) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram negative bacteria),
and we conducted a hazard assessment, complemented by computational
modeling, to evaluate the human and environmental health impacts of
these chemicals. We found that octyl gallate demonstrates better antimicrobial
activity and comparable or lower hazards, compared to current-use
preservatives. Therefore, octyl gallate may serve as a viable small-molecule
preservative, particularly in conjunction with low concentrations
of other preservatives that act through complementary mechanisms.