Snail Mucin In Cosmetics

Snail slime is a kind of mucus, an external body excretion produced by gastropod mollusks such as snails. Mucus is produced by land snails and slugs, as well as every other type of gastropod found in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Internally, gastropods' reproductive system creates mucus using specific glands.

Externally, the gastropod's foot produces a kind of mucus that is often employed for crawling. The other type of external mucus has developed to coat the gastropod's exterior parts; in terrestrial species, this coating prevents desiccation of exposed sensitive tissues. Land snails can move on vertical surfaces without slipping off because their foot mucus has some of the attributes of adhesive and some of the features of lubricant.

Snail Mucin in Cosmetics

Snail mucin hydrates, prevents ageing, improves wrinkles, scars, and treats dry skin and stretch marks in humans. It also aids in the synthesis of collagen and elastin, as well as protecting your skin from free radicals, soothing it, repairing damaged tissues, and restoring moisture.

Products With Snail Mucin

Garden snails have risen to the forefront of a popular skin care trend thanks to South Korean cosmetics producers such as COSRX. Snail mucus is used in cosmetics such as:

• Moisturizers
• Face creams
• Gel masks
• Skin repair serums

Garden snail slime is collected from live snails, filtered, and then mixed with other chemicals to manufacture various skin creams, some of which have shown promise in small tests to cure sunburn and speed wound recovery.

What Is Mucin?

Mucus is a polymer-based gel that serves as a protective coating for the integument and mucosal surfaces of both primitive and mammalian animals.

Gastropod mucus is used not only to coat the surfaces on which the snail travels and to protect the exposed soft sections of the body, but it is also utilized to allow a resting snail to stick passively to surfaces such as rock, forming a temporary sealing structure known as the epiphragm. A big gland positioned below the snail's mouth produces mucus.

This mucus coats the foot of gastropods and is utilized for a number of purposes, including propulsion, adhesion, lubrication, repulsing predators, identifying other snails, following a path to a known destination, and reproduction. The discharge has the appearance of a gel and comprises between 91 and 98 percent water by weight, depending on the species, with a tiny quantity of high molecular weight glycoproteins.

The Common Garden Snail Cornu Aspersa

Land mollusks move by using muscle waves that propagate from the tail to the head. The snail mucus has an adaptive flow characteristic that permits the muscle force to be transmitted while adhesion is maintained. Many mollusks, both marine and terrestrial, use the secretion to adhere to diverse surfaces when they are dormant. Despite the fact that it is so dilute that it may be used as a lubricant, it has significant adhesive qualities. Limax maximus utilize a mucus thread to suspend themselves from lofty sites such as tree branches during their unusual mating ritual. There are two types of secretion in Cornu aspersum. The slime trail is made up of two types of slime: one that is translucent and non-adhesive, and the other that is thicker, condensed, more viscous, and elastic, and is utilized to cling to various surfaces. The types of proteins found in each clearly distinguishes them.

Depending on how a snail is stimulated, it produces different types of mucus. The slime is viscous (sticky) when the snail is stimulated normally, but clear foamy secretions are released if the snail is agitated repeatedly or aggressively. The discharge of Cornu aspersum is made up of produced products from several types of secretory glands. All of these glands are single-cell glands found in connective tissue that discharge their contents through holes that run between epidermal cells. They come in a variety of forms and have a lengthy excretory duct. There are eight main types of glands that produce secretions. Protein, calcium, pigments, and lipids are secreted by four of these various kinds.