Iran is one of the top 10 most consuming countries of cosmetics and skin care products in the world. Approximately 4.5% of the annual income of Iranian families is spent on beauty products, which is many times higher than France, Germany and Britain.
The Ingredients of beauty products can be natural or chemical, the consumption of the later produces the most adverse and destructive effects on human health due to the presence of harmful chemicals in their combination. Researchers estimate that women are applying 515 chemicals a day to their skin through the use of beauty products.
Due to the dangerous nature of chemicals, today the use of plant-based beauty products has received more attention, although these products still may not be totally safe. Because the content of plant extracts may have been contaminated with fungal toxins (mycotoxins) due to various factors during planting, harvesting, drying and storage.
Cosmetics and skin care products such as exfoliating creams and skin cleansers, if contain plant substances bearing fungal toxins, may threaten the consumers’ health through skin absorption of strong carcinogenic properties.
Research on hand creams containing vegetable oils showed that about 35% of them had unauthorized levels of mycotoxins. In general, since herbal care products contain less risk to human health than chemicals, it is preferable to reduce the fungal toxins’ risk and increase the safety of herbal cosmetics through carefully examination and quality control of beauty products’ raw materials in factories in terms of mycotoxin contamination.