Skincare startup uses a bioactive compound from avocado pits, which are normally discarded by the food industry.
By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c
It’s long been known that an avocado facial mask softens, hydrates and nourishes the skin and even helps heal blemishes and inflammation.
But what about the part that usually gets tossed in the trashcan – the pit?
Israeli startup AvoMed spent a decade researching and testing PFA (polyhydroxylated fatty alcohol), a bioactive compound extracted from avocado pits, as the basis for skin-care products to treat sun damage and inflammation.
The company has patented an ecofriendly process to extract PFA from pits sourced from factories that produce guacamole, frozen avocado and avocado oil.
Normally, the pits are an expensive nuisance for these factories because the pits pollute soil as they decompose and therefore require a special pretreatment.
AvoMed’s line of PFA-based cosmetics for women and men are being developed with support from the Israeli Innovation Authority and based on studies at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Weizmann Institute of Science and Hadassah University Medical Center as well as Skin Axis Labs in the United States.
According to the company, the natural cosmetics market was valued at $6.6 billion in 2021.
Led by Chairman Oded Bashan and CEO Shai Bensaid, AvoMed has four registered and approved patents in Israel and the United States; four additional patent applications in the European Union, the United States and China are in various approval stages.
The next step for this startup from Rosh Pina is raising funds through the Pipelbiz platform to scale up toward industrial production.