What is polysorbate 20 and where does it come from?

Question

I was looking at the ingredients on a shampoo and it had 'Polysorbate 20' on it. What does it do to shampoo and does it come from plants or animals?

Thanks =]

Answer 1

These kinds of chemicals are branded as bad things because they sound complex, but they really do an amazing job- polysorbates help blend the nice natural oils that you have in nature- they make them "water soluable" so that you will be able to use these nice natural oils on your hair so that the oils can be applied without gunking up, you can benefit from them and be able to wash them out of your hair with water- so these chemical additives actually make natural products "able" to be used nicely in products for the body- so they shouldn't be thought of as "chemical additives" that people think are bad- actually the natural oils and products are too harsh for the body and these polysorbates allow them to be able to be used on and in the body.

from Wikipedia I got some more info:

"""Polysorbate 20 (commercially also known as Tween 20) is a polysorbate surfactant whose stability and relative non-toxicity allows it to be used as a detergent and emulsifier in a number of domestic, scientific, and pharmacological applications. It is a polyoxyethylene derivative of sorbitan monolaurate, and is distinguished from the other members in the Tween range by the length of the polyoxyethylene chain and the fatty acid ester moiety. The commercial product contains a range of chemical species.[1]"""

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysorbate...

Answer 2

Polysorbate 20 is derived from sorbitol which comes from fruit and berries. It's not completely natural though. It's a cleanser and an emmulsifier (which helps the other chemicals mix together).