Fermented Soy Milk Lotion: A proprietary ingredient with increased functionality made by fermenting soy milk using a special method

At the Angfa Research Laboratory we are researching effective ingredients for the hormones which decline in people as they age. Using a proprietary production method, we have developed a "fermented soy milk lotion" which cotains high amounts of lactic acid, polyphenols, and isoflavones.

Our fermented soy milk lotion was developed by fermenting the soy milk taken from the seeds of soybeans (Glycine max Merrill - Leguminosae) with Lactobacillus delbrueckii and then filtering the liquid to yield an extract. What is normally a 3-4 hour fermentation period we extended by approximately a factor of 6, to 24 hours. This longer fermentation period allowed us to create a fermented soy milk lotion with high contents of amino acids, lactic acid, and aglycone-type isoflavone.

We compared the activity of estrogen receptor α-Agonist due to our propietary fermented soy milk powder and a traditional blended fermented soy milk powder. Both showed activation of estrogen receptor α-Agonist, but the powder developed in our lab showed 1.39 times more activation than the traditional blend. These results show that our proprietary fermented soy milk powder excels at estrogen receptor α-Agonist activation. *An agonist is a substance which acts on receptor particles within an organism and has a similar function to hormones and neurotransmitters.

We took our proprietary fermented soy milk powder and added it to human hair follicle dermal papilla cells in order to measure the expression of various genes (n=3). As a control, the cells were also cultivated without adding the fermented soy milk powder and the expression of various genes was measured (n=3). The two sample groups were compared using a t-test to see whether the former had a significantly (p<0.05) greater expression of genes than the latter. The results showed that genes known to play an important role in follicle formation, i.e., BMP4, enhrin A3, and Wnt10b, as well as the gene FGF7, which is known to contribute to increased hair matrix cells, had significantly increased expression in the samples with our proprietary fermented soy milk powder compared to regular powders.

We took our fermented soy milk lotion, concentrated it by decompression, freeze-dried it, and ground the resulting solid into a fine powder. We evaluated the hair growth action of the powder using the following method. We dissolved 0.08g of the powder in a 50% aqueous solution of ethanol with a total volume of 100mL to use as our test sample. The control sample was a 50% aqueous solution of ethanol. 40 participants showing signs of hair loss applied the control to the left side of their head and the test sample to the right side, blind, twice a day over a three month period. Analyzing the results with a trichogram showed that the area to which the test sample had been applied showed effects in hair growth speed, thickness, and density. This proprietary fermented soy milk lotion which we developed has everything a traditional lotion has—moisturizing, whitening, and antioxidation properties—but we've succeeded in adding hair growth properties as well. This multifunctional fermented soy milk lotion is used in many of Angfa's products, and we intend to continue developing it into an even more functional and effective ingredient.