In recent years, the amount of waste deriving from industrial processes has increased substantially. Many industries produce different types of disposable by-products, rich in valuable compounds. Their characterization and valorization could not only convert them into high value products with application in diverse biotechnological fields, such as Pharmaceutics, Food or Cosmetics, but would also reduce the waste environmental impact and the related treatment costs. There are many examples of cosmetic active ingredients deriving from fish, meat and dairy products, but in the present review we would like to focus on the potentialities and the current use of compounds and extracts deriving from agronomical disposable wastes in the cosmetic field. These types of products are effective, inexpensive and bio-sustainable, and thus represent a valid alternative to the regular plant derived extracts, more commonly adopted in cosmetic formulations. Moreover, if the waste products come from organic farming, they are certainly an even more valuable source of safe extracts for Cosmetics, since they lack any residual pesticide or potentially toxic chemical.

The last decades witnessed a great demand of natural remedies. As a result, medicinal plants have been increasingly cultivated on a commercial scale, but the yield, the productive quality and the safety have not always been satisfactory. Plant cell cultures provide useful alternatives for the production of active ingredients for biomedical and cosmetic uses, since they represent standardized, contaminant-free and biosustainable systems, which allow the production of desired compounds on an industrial scale. Moreover, thanks to their totipotency, plant cells grown as liquid suspension cultures can be used as “biofactories” for the production of commercially interesting secondary metabolites, which are in many cases synthesized in low amounts in plant tissues and differentially distributed in the plant organs, such as roots, leaves, flowers or fruits. Although it is very widespread in the pharmaceutical industry, plant cell culture technology is not yet very common in the cosmetic field. The aim of the present review is to focus on the successful research accomplishments in the development of plant cell cultures for the production of active ingredients for cosmetic applications.

Bioactive peptides (BP) are specific protein fragments that are physiologically important for most living organisms. It is proven that in humans they are involved in a wide range of therapeutic activities as antihypertensive, antioxidant, anti-tumoral, anti-proliferative, hypocholesterolemic, and anti-inflammatory. In plants, BP are involved in the defense response, as well as in the cellular signaling and the development regulation. Most of the peptides used as ingredients in health-promoting foods, dietary supplements, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical preparations are obtained by chemical synthesis or by partial digestion of animal proteins. This makes them not fully accepted by the consumers because of the risks associated with solvent contamination or the use of animal derived substances. On the other hand, plant and microalgae derived peptides are known to be selective, effective, safe, and well tolerated once consumed, thus they have got a great potential for use in functional foods, drugs, and cosmetic products. In fact, the interest in the plant and microalgae derived BP is rapidly increasing and in this review, we highlight and discuss the current knowledge about their studies and applications in the cosmetic field.

The history of cosmetics develops in parallel to the history of man, associated with fishing, hunting, and superstition in the beginning, and later with medicine and pharmacy. Over the ages, together with human progress, cosmetics have changed continuously and nowadays the cosmetic market is global and highly competitive, where terms such as quality, efficacy and safety are essential. Consumers’ demands are extremely sophisticated, and thus scientific research and product development have become vital to meet them. Moreover, consumers are aware about environmental and sustainability issues, and thus not harming the environment represents a key consideration when developing a new cosmetic ingredient. The latest tendencies of cosmetics are based on advanced research into how to interfere with skin cell aging: research includes the use of biotechnology-derived ingredients and the analysis of their effects on the biology of the cells, in terms of gene regulation, protein expression and enzymatic activity measures. In this review, we will provide some examples of cosmetic active ingredients developed through biotechnological systems, whose activity on the skin has been scientifically proved through in vitro and clinical studies.

Trichoderma filamentous fungi are increasingly used as biocontrol agents and plant biostimulants. Growing evidence indicates that part of the beneficial effects is mediated by the activity of fungal metabolites on the plant host. We have investigated the mechanism of plant perception of HYTLO1, a hydrophobin abundantly secreted by Trichoderma longibrachiatum, which may play an important role in the early stages of the plant-fungus interaction. Aequorin-expressing Lotus japonicus suspension cell cultures responded to HYTLO1 with a rapid cytosolic Ca²⁺ increase that dissipated within 30 min, followed by the activation of the defence-related genes MPK3, WRK33, and CP450. The Ca²⁺-dependence of these gene expression was demonstrated by using the extracellular Ca²⁺ chelator EGTA and Ned-19, a potent inhibitor of the nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) receptor in animal cells, which effectively blocked the HYTLO1-induced Ca²⁺ elevation. Immunocytochemical analyses showed the localization of the fungal hydrophobin at the plant cell surface, where it forms a protein film covering the plant cell wall. Our data demonstrate the Ca²⁺-mediated perception by plant cells of a key metabolite secreted by a biocontrol fungus, and provide the first evidence of the involvement of NAADP-gated Ca²⁺ release in a signalling pathway triggered by a biotic stimulus.