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

The investigation of the potential uses of this secretion goes back some 15 years. A Chilean enterprise has conducted research and developed a biotechnology to collect the secretion. They do this by submitting the snails to regulated stress comparable to what they have to respond to when a predator attacks them, or when they emerge into an atmosphere saturated with oxygen radicals after hibernating. This enterprise has also developed 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 analyzed snails and their secretions. The snails were considered simple creatures, allowing study and the modeling of biological functions thought to be more intricate in vertebrates. The scientists have discovered molecules in the snail secretion now being thought worthwhile candidates for the creation of drugs, and natural skin care treatments.

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

The Natural Way to Healthy Skin

Also, it could explain the further finding that snails wounded by birds are able to recover some of their parts -eyes and mouth- by bubbling onto themselves what seems to be the same secretion 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 secretion on the opercula, or to persuade bugs 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 process created to collect the secretion and its use in cosmetic or skin care products have been authorized. One to a Chilean doctor, in Chile in 1995, for a process to collect the fluids by submerging snails in warm water and then separating the mucin, for the use of the secretion in a skin care cream made with petrochemical and other artificial components. The second to a Spanish oncologist, in the USA in 1996, for a process whereby snails are stressed mechanically to promote the secretion of their fluid, 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 an intricate glyco-molecule, isolated from the body and also present in the secretions of an African snail, as a solution to impede angiogenesis.