Topical application is an important administration route for drugs requiring local action on the skin, thereby avoiding their systemic absorption and adverse side effects. Rosmarinus officinalis L. (syn. Salvia rosmarinus Spenn.), popularly known as rosemary, is an aromatic plant with needle-like leaves belonging to the Lamiaceae family. Rosemary has therapeutic properties and has been used in the folk medicine, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries, mainly for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which are attributed to the presence of carnosol/carnosic and ursolic acids. The therapeutic use of rosemary has been explored for the treatment of inflammatory diseases; however, other uses have been studied, such as wound healing and skin cancer and mycoses treatments, among others. Besides it therapeutic uses, rosemary has potential applications in cosmetic formulations and in the treatment of pathological and non-pathological conditions, such as cellulite, alopecia, ultraviolet damage, and aging. This review aims to critically discuss the topical applications of rosemary found in the literature while also offering relevant information for the development of topical formulations of its bioactive compounds.

Two‐phase systems can be exploited in separation science for the extraction/purification of desired biomolecules. This article reviews recent experimental work on the use of aqueous two‐phase polymer systems, two‐phase aqueous micellar systems and reversed micellar systems for the extraction/purification of biomolecules. The experimental partitioning behavior of different biomolecules is reviewed and new results with nisin and lipopolysaccharides are presented. An extensive description of each system is presented, based on the biomolecules behavior and the tools employed to improve their extraction and purification. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry

The use of biopharmaceuticals dates from the 19th century and within 5-10 years, up to 50% of all drugs in development will be biopharmaceuticals. In the 1980s, the biopharmaceutical industry experienced a significant growth in the production and approval of recombinant proteins such as interferons (IFN α, β, and γ) and growth hormones. The production of biopharmaceuticals, known as bioprocess, involves a wide range of techniques. In this review, we discuss the technology involved in the bioprocess and describe the available strategies and main advances in microbial fermentation and purification process to obtain biopharmaceuticals.