Potential of Slime Molds As a Novel Source for the Cosmetics Industry

Modern cosmetics, and "green cosmetics" in particular, are rapidly evolving, with unique natural elements from strange sources. An unusual resource is a strange group of slime moulds that have been argued over for a long time as to whether they are plants, fungi, or animals. In this way, it's strange that these interesting low-eukaryotic organisms aren't mentioned in reviews of natural cosmetic sources and aren't used in cosmetics made for people. Chemical tests have shown that slime moulds make a large number (127) of new or rare secondary metabolites that could be used in cosmetics. Many of these substances have biological activity. From 72% of the 53 species that were checked, new compounds were found. At the same time, only a small number of the more than 900 species that have been identified have been studied (0.06). With so much undiscovered biodiversity, there is a lot of room for new discoveries. Slime moulds are a potential source of new biologically active substances that could be used in modern cosmetics (like pigments, lipids, aromatic substances, etc.). So, the goal of this review is to bring more attention to this often-overlooked topic by describing what has been learned so far and pointing out some challenges and opportunities for the future.