Coming Soon: Soybean-based Sunscreen

Health conscious consumers may soon have a new option when shopping for sunscreen. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and iSoy, an Illinois-based research company, have teamed up to create "SoyScreen," a biodegradable sunscreen derived from soybean oil.

SoyScreen owes its sunburn-preventing properties to an antioxidant called ferulic acid. SoyScreen is fully biodegradeable and is made using biocatalysis, an environmentally process whereby biological proteins called enzymes are used to speed up chemical reactions.

In research tests, SoyScreen filtered out harmful ultraviolet light as well as four chemicals that absorb UV: oxybenzone, dioxybenzone, octyl methoxycinnamate and padimate-O.

In addition to sunscreen, iSoy is also planning to create soy-based skin-, hair- and other personal-care products.

--Ker Than

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Credit:  Scott Bauer/USDA