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Chiral Technology
About Chiral Technology
A molecule is considered chiral if it differs from its mirror image. The easiest way to visualize this is to do the following: Hold out your hands (palms up or down). You will see that they are mirror images of each other. Next, place your right hand on top of your left hand. You will see their major features do not line up, and no matter how you try, they cannot line up. Your left and right hands are made of the same structures (fingers, joints, etc), but in a mirrored configuration. This means your hands are chiral.
If the molecule does not differ from its mirror image, it is called "achiral". An example of something achiral is the letter "A" (as shown below). Its original version does not differ from its mirrored version, and when placed on top of each other their major features line up perfectly.
AA
The hand explanation is more than just a convenient visualization tool —chiral actually stems from the Greek word "kheir", which means "hand". Just like we have a right and left hand, a chemical's molecule can exist in right and left hand forms. The following amino acid is shown in its two separate hands. As you can see, the two molecules have the same chemical composition — but, in mirrored orientations.
The prefixes "D" and "L" are used to identify which molecular hand is being represented: "D" stands for right and "L" stands for left. For example: D-alpha-tocopherol and L-alpha-tocopherol. Both are vitamin E, but just in mirrored orientations. So, if the forms are technically the same chemical, why is it so important to distinguish between them? Because the different forms can actually result in different chemical reactions.
The term "Chirally-Correct™" is given to whichever hand is specifically isolated due to its superior benefits and compatibility with nature (including the human body). Chiral compounds extracted from nature are already Chirally-Correct™. But, since Earth cannot always meet the demands of humans, and to support "green" manufacturing, many compounds are artificially created in a laboratory. However, when Chiral molecules are synthesized in a lab, they generally come into existence in their racemic form, which means the left and the right hands are joined. The racemic form is identified with the prefix "DL", which represents both the left- and right-handed molecules being bonded together.
Racemic molecules are not Chirally-Correct™, and thus can either react in no way or in a bad way. DL-alpha-tocopherol has been shown to have a higher incidence of causing allergic reactions in people. So, it would be unwise to utilize this ingredient in personal and nutritional products.
Through a process called "chiral separation", racemic molecules are split into the two separate hands so that the Chirally-Correct™ forms can be isolated and extracted. DL-alpha-tocopherol becomes D-alpha-tocopherol and L-alpha-tocopherol. But, since L-alpha-tocopherol has shown to be virtually functionless, only the D hand is utilized. Sadly, had pharmaceutical manufacturers put Thalidomide through chiral separation years ago, many women would not have had children with debilitating birth defects — it was only the racemic form of the drug that was toxic, whereas the Chiral-Correct™ form (available on the market today) is both safe and effective.
CoValence was a pioneer in the application of chiral technology and green manufacturing for skin care; we have been researching and formulating with Chirally-Correct™ ingredients since the mid 1990s. Because of this, CoValence's products have a significantly higher standard of quality and efficacy and, above all, a superior compatibility with skin at a molecular level.
"I call any geometrical figure, or group of points, Chiral, and say it has Chirality if its image in a plane miror, ideally realized, cannot be brought to coincide with itself". -Lord Kelvin 1904.
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