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Rice, the staple cereal, can soon be a pain reliever, skin moisturiser or meet other skin-care needs.
A beginning towards this has been made with the Directorate of Rice Research, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, coming out with the country’s first rice-based pain relieving gel and skin moisturising lotion.
The directorate is also expanding the field of its research from hybrid rice products to rice-based health and skin care products. Japan has been using rice for making a variety of natural skin and hair care products, including facial scrubs, anti-wrinkle and moisturisers for decades.
Encouraging results
“Our two new products have yielded encouraging results during trials and limited marketing. We are now ready to transfer the technology through tie ups with skin care product makers and retailers on a royalty or partnership basis,” B.C. Viraktamath, Project Director, told Business Line .
The institute, which sells hybrid seeds and services to private companies on a licensing basis, is in talks with small retailers and healthcare companies for taking up production on a commercial scale.
The skin-care product was made at DRR laboratory from rice bran oil and aqueous brown rice extract as key ingredients.
Due to the brown rice, the product also contains oryzanol, vitamins and other anti-oxidants that are known to have anti-aging qualities. “The starch extracted from brown rice acts as a gelling agent, providing moisture to the skin slowly but for a longer period of time. At laboratory scale, the production cost of 100 gm is just Rs 13. Thus, a Rs 5 lakh unit can produce 50 kg of the gel daily,” he said.
The pain balm herbal formulation contains rice bran oil as a carrier, which helps active ingredients such as camphor, menthol and eucalyptus oil get absorbed in the skin faster, providing quick relief.
The production cost at DRR laboratory was Rs 20 for 25 gram.
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