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Customers and friends often ask me about this: is hyaluronic acid extracted from animals? So cruel!

Every time it takes a long time for me to explain, so today I’ll explain the source of hyaluronic acid.

Hyaluronic acid, as a natural macromolecular acidic mucopolysaccharide, is widely found in animal tissues and capsules of streptococci, such as rooster crown, vitreous body, umbilical cord, synovial fluid, skin, and so on. But raw materials that can be used for production only include cockscomb, human umbilical cord, and group C streptococcus.

In 1937, Forrest and Heidelberger reported for the first time the method of obtaining HA from microbial fermentation. In other words, humans did find hyaluronic acid in animal and human bodies. Then in the 1980s, the technology of streptococcus fermentation preparation of high molecular weight HA had made great progress. This method has been included in the European pharmacopeia. In recent years, transgenic bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis can also be used to produce HA. Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus are Gram-positive bacteria and do not produce endotoxin.

A photograph of streptococcus and its capsules under an optical microscope

The fermentation medium includes peptone, yeast powder, glucose, etc. When the fermentation is finished, the microorganisms are first killed, then precipitate with an organic solvent to get crude HA. The crude product is dissolved in brine and further purified to have the purified HA solution, which is then precipitated with an organic solvent and dried or spray-dried to have the finished HA product. The purity of the finished HA product obtained from precipitation using an organic solvent is higher.

The fermentation method has the following advantages: the production costs are reduced, the output is not subject to raw materials, and the purity of the product is high. Currently, the production of HA using the fermentation method has become the main method of producing HA in the world.

The HA supplied by Stanford Chemicals Company is made by fermentation and is a non-animal product. You can safely use it!