Japanese Honeysuckle Extract: parabens in 'paraben free' shampoo and conditioners?

This question comes courtesy of facebook reader Ayo, she says:

' I just found out that Japanese honeysuckle that Shea Moisture uses in their products as a preservative is actually a paraben. Yet the label stresses No parabens and extra all-natural jargon. No bueno for me!'

Ok so I did some digging up, thanks to some of the links that Ayo gave me and here is my final conclusion.

1. Is Japanese Honeysuckle Extract a paraben?

From a consumer standpoint, I would say that if you want to avoid parabens, you need to avoid Japanese Honeysuckle Extract. It most certainly looks like and behaves like a paraben. To make this clear, I would like to show you the structural similarities between a lab created paraben and parahydroxybenzoic acid found in Japanese Honeysuckle Extract.

WHAT IS A PARABEN?
Japanese Honeysuckle Extract (Natural)	Methyl Paraben (Synthetic)	Basic Chemistry
Full name: Parahydroxybenzoic acid	Full name:  Methyl Parahydroxybenzoate	Full name: Parahydroxybenzoate (where R can be any group)

Now, technically the word paraben refers only to the lab created version, therefore manufacturers are technically not deceptive to say that Japanese Honeysuckle Extract is not a paraben. A similar comparison would be perhaps where someone adds raw honey to a drink and labels it as no artificial sugar added. In reality, honey contains sugar but it is technically not artificial in origin.


2. Does Japanese Honeysuckle Extract behave like a paraben in the human body?

 Yes, studies on parahydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA - the active ingredient in Japanese Honeysuckle) do show that it behaves in pretty much the same way as a paraben does i.e it can be taken up easily through skin and it can bind to cells sensitive to hormones. Methylparaben is regarded as more potent than PHBA but both are regarded as hormone disruptors ( J Appl Toxicol, pp 301-9, 2005).

3. Should companies that state products are paraben free include Japanese Honeysuckle Extract in their products?

No, they should not but they are not breaking any law by doing so. Until scientists define PHBA as a paraben, a manufacturer can add it in to any product and say it is paraben free.

4. What are your thoughts on parabens and cancer?
 
I personally do not avoid parabens. The truth is that parabens are very weak hormone disruptors and PHBA occurs naturally in plenty of food that we regard as healthy (olive oil, carrots, strawberries, blue berries etc). Women who are the main users of cosmetics, are exposed to much more potent hormone disruptors in the form of contraceptives, upto 100,000 times more likely to bind to tissue than parabens. Parabens are actually not known and never have been proven to cause cancer, this is a myth that even the author of the paper which was used to present this opinion disputed.

I do however think that consumers who choose to avoid parabens for whatever reason do have the right to know what is in their products and that companies should not use a pretty name like Japanese Honeysuckle Extract to disguise what is in effect a near identical ingredient to a paraben.

5. Is there a real paraben free line?

I do think that consumers should really educate themselves more. The truth is that scientifically parabens and formaldehyde releasers are the two known effective preservatives. I know that people often talk about grapefruit extract and vitamin e oil but as of right now, there is no compelling evidence of their efficacy (grapefruit extract efficacy actually disputed due to contamination with parabens).

For a product to be able to sit on a shelf for several months, it needs an effective preservative. Paraben free lines tend to use things like alcohols, urea and formaldehyde releasers or as we now know PHBA.