Silk has long had a reputation as a luxury item but there is much more to it than simply a fine material. Silk, like all other animal and vegetable matter, contains protein, and this can be used as a dietary supplement and as an ingredient in cosmetics.
"Silk food protein is the top of the chain of highest quality," claimed Robert Averill, director of the The New Silk Road, a US company which markets silk protein under the brand name SilPROTein.
"It can be used in cosmetics and skin care instead of basic cosmetic quality silk, and by using food protein the quality of the cosmetic or skin care product is enhanced," Averill claimed.
"It is one of the few products of nature that has so many productive uses. Silk is nature's most elegant product. In skin care it carries much of the food protein benefits and assets in application to the skin," claimed a spokeswoman for SilPRO, the company which manufactures SilPROtein at two production sites in Tokyo and Shanghai.
"One of Japan's largest dietary supplement manufacturers is using the company's silk food protein in a skin care supplement sold over the counter in Japan," she added.
The key to obtaining top quality silk protein for skin care supplements is to make the silk protein to the highest quality level, she said. SilPRO is said to be the only company which produces silk protein at the three micron quality level; all other producers produce protein at 10 microns or more, the spokeswoman claimed.
"The use of silk protein in cosmetics is a fascinating and exciting discovery which we are now marketing to manufacturers and distributors in the United States and several other countries," said Lyle Fox, export director of both SilPRO and The New Silk Road.