Panthenol is an active ingredient for sophisticated cosmetic skin care and hair care products. It improves the appearance of skin, hair and nails. D-Panthenol is the provitamin of D-Pantothenic acid (Vita min B5). D-Pantothenic acid plays a key role in the human intermediary metabolism. It is a part of the Coenzym A. Defi ciency of Vitamin B5 results in many dermatological disorder.
Coenzym A is important for:

• structure and function of living tissue
• resistance of the mucous membrane
• growth and pigmentation of hair

Role in the skin:

• deep penetrating moisturizer
• stimulates epithelisation
• has wound healing effect
• has an anti-infl ammatory effect

Role in the hair:

• long lasting moisturizer
• prevents hair damage
• thickens hair
• improves luster and sheen

Role in nail care:

• improves hydration
• imparts flexibility

Only the D-Panthenol is the provitamin of D-Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5), not the L-Panthenol. The human body converts D-Panthenol to Vitamin B5, which is D-Panthotenic acid. DL-Panthenol is a lit racemic mixture of D-Panthenol and L-Panthenol. Due to the fact that only D-Panthenol is converted to Vitamin B5 and not LPanthenol, the racemic DL-Panthenol has only half of the physiological activity of the D-Panthenol. These include stimulation of epithelisation, wound healing effect and anti-infl ammatory effect. But for all the none physiological activities like moisturizer effect, improvement of hair structure, giving luster and sheen to the hair D- and DL-Panthenol are equally active. The D-Panthenol USP and 50 P are also applied in the pharmaceutical industry. The main areas of pharmaceutical application are syrups, drops, ampoules, creams, gels and capsules. In liquid multi-vitamin and Vitamin B complex preparations D-Panthenol is nearly always preferred to the D-Pantothenates because it is usually considerably more stable at the pH values below 5 usually employed in these preparations.