Grapefruit Seed Extract-The so-called "natural" preservative to watch out for

So if you've read my previous post titled "skincredible..." and put my recommendations to use- you're already well on your way to being healthy and looking more vibrant without the toxicities associated with conventional beauty care products.   But what you may fail to realize is that even so called "natural" and even "organic" products purity and integrity can be questionable.  One such example is products that use grapefruit seed extract or sometimes listed as citrus seed preservative.  While you'd assume that GSE is made simply by extracting from from the fruit that is hardly the case.  One of the manufactures of GSE, Citricidal explains their process of creating GSE:

1. Grapefruit pulp and seed is dried and ground into a fine powder.
2. The powder is dissolved in purified water and distilled to remove the fiber and pectin.
3. The distilled slurry is spray dried at low temperatures forming a concentrated flavonoid powder.
4. This concentrated powder is dissolved in vegetable glycerine and heated.
5. Food grade ammonium chloride and ascorbic acid are added, and this mixture is heated under pressure. The amount of ammonium chloride remaining in finished Citricidal is 15-19%; the amount of ascorbic acid remaining is 2.5-3.0%.
6. The ammoniated mixture undergoes catalytic conversion using natural catalysts, including hydrochloric acid and natural enzymes. There is no residue of hydrochloric acid after the reaction.
7. The slurry is cooled, filtered, and treated with ultraviolet light.

As the website Chemical of the day points out: "As you can see, this isn't a truly natural process, it being treated with hydrochloric acid and ammonium chloride.  After all the chemical reactions occur, the final composition of the extract is made up of about 60% diphenol hydroxybenzene, a chemical classified as a quaternary ammonium chloride--the same as benzethonium chloride.  In fact, it is nearly chemically identical to benzethonium chloride. This is one possible reason that lab tests have shown GSE to be "contaminated" with benzethonium chloride--the equipment possibly misread the diphenol hydroxybenzene."   The Green Guide (sept/oct 2006 issue 116) stated ..."seven out of nine samples of GSE preservatives contained either benzethonium chloride, a suspected hormone disruptor and or benzalkonium chloride, a skin and eye irritant..."  Gaia Research further pointed out "Benzethonium chloride, as detected in so-called Grapefruit seed extract (GSE), is a quaternary ammonium cationic disinfectant, a Class 2 poison because of its teratogenicity (induction of congenital defects). Cationic detergents are more toxic than other detergents due to their caustic and systemic toxic effects. Contamination of the eye may lead to corneal lesions. Oral solutions can lead to depression of the central nervous system, seizures, coma and death..."  Gaia Research also stated that "The only means by which the GSE could be even weakly effective long term over the life of a natural product, would be for it to be preserved with parabens or some other preservative to prevent any ‘natural?’ preservative itself from decomposing and becoming ineffective." Such is the case as the sythentic preservatives agents methyl paraban and Triclosan (which is genotoxic and may irreversibly alter DNA strands (Ciniglia C et al, J Hazard Mater, 122(3), 2005) also  were found in commercial grade GSE.  

Bottom line: Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) any way you look at it is a synthetic chemical.   Look for products that don't utilize GSE as their preservative.  And encourage companies you like to stop using GSE to preserve their products and instead seek out safer natural alternatives.