[swish23]

HI

I am looking to find an alternative to abscorbic acid (including salts of abscorbic acid). Does anyone have any ideas in this space with what i could replace it with? Looking for something as close to it as possible.

Thanks

[hypervalent_iodine]

I assume you mean ascorbic acid? A suitable replacements will depend on the application. What are you using it for and why not ascorbic acid?

[swish23]

Correct, apologies.
Its for a skin care product so needs to be friendly for skin application

[hypervalent_iodine]

Correct, apologies.
Its for a skin care product so needs to be friendly for skin application

And why not ascorbic acid itself?

[swish23]

there's a patent in place preventing use of ascorbic acid for this type of product so i was curious to see if there was a similar alternative (but not a salt of ascorbic acid either)

[Borek]

Note: technically this is against forum rules ("Due to their potential health hazards, we will also not help you prepare your own medicines or cosmetics."). I will leave it for now though, as long as we discuss properties and ideas, not the recipes.

A lot depends on the role of the ascorbic acid in the product. If it is a biologically active ingredient, there is no way to replace it. You may have a bit more luck with finding a replacement if it is there to stabilize pH (with pKa around 4.1 and pH of skin care products starting at 4.5 that could make some sense, especially as ascorbic acid is rather well tolerated).

[AWK]

Search in Handbooks of Cosmetics or Pharmacopeas for ascorbic acid salts or oil-soluble esters.
Possible use at your own risk.