Natural is often seen as synonymous with healthiness, while chemicals have negative connotations due to harmful side effects. But all materials and substances contain chemicals.
The FDA does not have a formal definition of natural, but their longstanding policy on food labeling states that products must contain no artificial or synthetic components that would not ordinarily be found within their ingredients list.
Plants
Plants are essential components of life on Earth. They supply us with oxygen and food while aiding many living organisms to survive.
Not all plants are alike; some contain medicinal qualities that benefit humans. These chemicals may come directly from the plant itself or another source such as microbes or animals.
Even though these chemicals come from nature, they can still be hazardous. Contamination with heavy metals or natural toxins could make these chemicals potentially toxic; in addition, studies have demonstrated how natural ingredients interact with other chemical additives to produce negative synergistic effects that cause negative side-effects.
Natural ingredients come from plants when extracted directly from them without using synthetic chemicals or chemical processes, including distilling aromatic plants to make essential oils.
Animals
Animals provide an abundance of natural ingredients that can easily penetrate the skin to promote healing, as well as being less expensive than synthetically produced products. Furthermore, natural ingredients may also be better for your pets or birds.
Blood, bone marrow, isinglass (a protein produced from crushed shrimp shells), gelatin, and squalene (oil from sharks) are used as fining agents in beer and winemaking to remove protein, yeast, cloudiness and off flavors and colorings from beverages.
Musky perfume ingredients that have an animalistic scent include those derived from dried secretions of animals such as deer, wild cats, otter or civet cats (in captivity these animals may have their genital areas whipped around) as well as labdanum oil from rockrose plants.
Minerals
Minerals are solid substances found naturally, in nature and usually in pure form. Minerals play an essential role in geological and industrial processes and are divided into categories based on their chemical composition and crystal structure, as well as physical properties used by mineralogists to identify minerals; color can sometimes help mineralogists differentiate one from another but this is not always a reliable indicator.
Some minerals contain highly ordered internal atomic structures, known as crystalline solids. Other minerals that do not exhibit this ordering have an irregular and inconsistent inner atomic structure and are known as amorphous minerals. Under favorable circumstances, crystalline minerals express their ordered internal structures by developing external forms known as crystal shapes that display their ordered internal structures.
Essential Oils
Essential oils, concentrated, potent natural chemical compounds found within many plant roots, seeds, leaves, bark and flowers that provide essential protection from harsh environmental conditions and pollination, among other functions.
Distillation (with steam and water) or mechanical methods like cold pressing are used to extract the unique aromatic chemicals present in each plant and produce its essential oil, but their exact chemical components may differ between species or even oils produced from them.
People use liquid extracts in aromatherapy and cosmetic products for aromatization purposes. When properly mixed with carrier oils before applying directly onto the skin, they can have therapeutic benefits and are considered safe; however, ingestion should be avoided to avoid skin irritation.
Preservatives
Contrary to what some may perceive as the inherent definition and regulation associated with “organic,” which have clear definitions and regulations for products labeled natural by the FDA. Although similar products labeled organic use agriculture methods that preserve soil health and biodiversity.
Food additives like flavors and colors are closely monitored by the FDA to assess their potential short- and long-term health impacts, however manufacturers aren’t required to disclose where these ingredients come from; making interpretation difficult.
Natural ingredients refer to those that come from nature – including plants, animals and microbes – rather than manufactured synthetically in a lab. One exception could be when manufacturers utilize an eco-friendly process like Aqueous Green ChemistryTM in producing enough quantities for cosmetic use.
