In Vivo Skin Hydrating Efficacy of Fish Collagen from Greenland Halibut as a High-Value Active Ingredient for Cosmetic Applications

The industrial processing of fish for food purposes also generates a considerable number of by-products such as viscera, bones, scales, and skin. From a value-added perspective, fish byproducts can act also as raw materials, especially because of their collagen content (particularly in fish skin). Interestingly, the potential of marine collagen for cosmetic applications is enormous and, remarkably, the extraction of this protein from fish skins has been established for different species. Using this approach, we investigated the integration of marine collagen (COLRp_I) extracted from the skin of the Greenland halibut as an active ingredient in a cosmetic hydrogel formulation. In this study, extracts of marine collagen at concentrations up to 10 mg/mL showed a non-cytotoxic effect when cultured with fibroblast cells for 3 days. In addition, marine collagen extract, when incorporated into a cosmetic hydrogel formulation, met criterion A of ISO 11930:2019 regarding the efficacy of the preservative system (challenge test). In addition, the cosmetic formulations based on marine collagen at dosages of 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5% were tested in a clinical study on the skin of the forearms of 23 healthy volunteers, showing a sightly hydration effect, suggesting its potential for beauty applications. Moreover, this work illustrates that the circular economy concept applied to the fish processing industry can represent important benefits, at innovation, environmental and economic levels.