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Newbie Question on EDTA


caryfh

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Has anyone substituted something when trisodium EDTA was called for in a recipe? It looks as though citric acid also works as a chelating agent, and was widely used prior to the discovery of EDTA, but I can't find information on how I would use citric acid to substitute for the EDTA, or if there was a better option.

I have a friend who is allergic to EDTA, and would like to make some stuff for her. :(

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I picked up the Body Butter Bliss kit from LotionCrafter.com just to see how it turned out. And it was awesome... so then I started thinking about making substitutions, for things like using Mango Butter instead of Shea Butter... etc. The EDTA is throwing me off. Here's the ingredients

Water Phase -

581g distilled water

2g zanthan gum

30g glycerin

2g tetrasodium EDTA

Oil Phase -

35g Lotionpro 165 (mix of glycerl stearate and PEG 100 stearate)

80g Rice bran oil

40g fractionated coconut oil

120g shea butter, refined

20g cetearyl alcohol

20 benehyl alcohol

7g Covi-ox T-50 Mixed tocopherols

8g Phenonip

20g dimethicone 350

then Lotioncrafter LC8515 (cyclomethicone) at the same time as FO

Finally citric acid to adjust pH and Annatto Extract.

Sorry, it's a long list for the recipe. The contact at Lotioncrafter said I could just leave it out... but then I was wondering why I add it if it's so easy to just leave it out. ?

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taking into account the amount in there, it looks like it's job is to boost the efficacy of the preservative. which is a nice to have.

it can also be used to stabilize the oils as well (slow oxidation/rancidity) - but you have tocopherols in there to help with that anyway.

but what I don't understand is that I thought it was best suited for an alkaline environment, and lotions are more typically slightly acidic. i'd expect them to recommend disodium EDTA instead, but I guess either will work.

regardless, you CAN leave it out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This particular body butter is supposed to hit a pH of 7.0 by adding small amount of citric acid at the end to help it reach this.

Another thought. Since the EDTA may be used to boost the efficacy of the preservative, what about if I used a different preservative? Like say I swapped the phenonip for some liquid germall plus? I was thinking of doing this anyway.

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