Helix Aspersa Muller is a creature that has survived extreme environmental conditions for more than 600 million years. This little gastropod or mollusk has an unusual defensive system in the form of a complex glycol-conjugate secretion which helps the animal rapidly repair any damage to its skin.

The research of the potential uses of this secretion goes back some 15 years. A Chilean company has performed research and created a biotechnology to gather the secretion. They do this by submitting the snails to controlled stress similar to what they have to respond to when a predator attacks them, or when they come into an atmosphere saturated with oxygen radicals after hibernating. This company has also created a biotechnology to secure the bio-availability of the secretion deep inside the skin where it interacts with target cells to recover skin damage.

Natural Skin Treatment with Biological Ingredients

For many years, numerous scientists have studied snails and their secretions. The snails were considered manageable creatures, allowing research and the modeling of natural functions thought to be more intricate in vertebrates. The scientists have discovered molecules in the snail secretion now being thought worthwhile candidates for the development of drugs, and natural skin care treatments.

Their findings have resulted in a new field in science called the "sweet science of glycobiology", a blossoming branch that attempts to understand how sugars in the body -called glycans- contribute to human health and contain information necessary to define the complexity of life as that of DNA and proteins. It also sheds light onto the possible explanation of a more humble observation by layman people. The observation that manipulating snails while breeding them for their value as a gourmet delicacy, produced soft hands and scar free healing of small injuries, cuts and scrapes.

The Natural Way to Healthy Skin

Also, it could explain the further realization that snails wounded by birds are able to recover some of their organs -eyes and mouth- by bubbling onto themselves what seems to be the same fluid mentioned above. The snails also use it to crawl more easily, hold onto something when on a vertical position defying gravity, to seal themselves into their shell by the dry fluid on the opercula, or to persuade insects to stay away from them. This biological secretion is the one that has this fascinating, healing effect on human skin.

Two patents of invention for a procedure created to gather the fluid and its use in cosmetic or skin care solutions have been granted. One to a Chilean doctor, in Chile in 1995, for a procedure to gather the secretions by submerging snails in warm water and then filtering the mucin, for the use of the secretion in a skin care cream made with petrochemical and other chemical excipients. The second to a Spanish oncologist, in the USA in 1996, for a procedure whereby snails are stressed mechanically to induce the production of their mucin, and the use of it for the therapeutic and cosmetic treatment of skin, mainly for radiodermatitis. There is also a patent conferred in the US in 2000 for the use of a complex glyco-molecule, isolated from the body and also present in the secretions of an African snail, as a solution to impede angiogenesis.

A safe and natural alternative to chemical skin care treatments is now available in the shape of a skin care product to treat a wide range of skin ailments. The Bio Balm is a natural skin care balm that heals and moisturizes your skin.