Ozone infused oils have been used medicinally and cosmetically for many years, however, in recent days, ozonated glycerin has been the hot topic. There are a lot of questions to be answered about ozonated glycerin including what it is, why it's gaining popularity and whether it will be a product that lives up to the hype.
In this article we'll cover:
Glycerin is a type of carbohydrate known as a sugar alcohol. This odorless liquid has a sweet taste and a syrupy consistency. While glycerin occurs naturally in plants through the fermentation of sugars, most of the glycerin nowadays is produced in a lab from fats and oils.
If you look closely you’ll notice that glycerin is also spelled with an “e” at the end (glycerine). These two spellings are often used interchangeably; however, a proper understanding of the difference is to use glycerine as the spelling for the less refined version and glycerin for versions containing 95% or more of glycerol. Today, most glycerin that is produced exceeds 95% purity.
One more term that we need to identify is glycerol. Glycerol is actually produced in the human and animal cells and is a key component of our cell membranes which is a good indication that it is a part of healthy cellular function. Glycerol is the proper name while glycerin is the name given to the commercialized product.
The list is long…really long. We could go into over twenty industry uses of glycerin, but that’s not the purpose of this post, so we’ll shorten it.
Cosmetics
Glycerin is the #1 ingredient when it comes to trapping and retaining moisture. In cosmetics, this is known as a humectant. It’s one of the most common ingredients in all sorts of cosmetic products from makeup to
toothpaste to lotion. Besides its ability to prevent water from evaporating, it is also used as a solvent and lubricant in skincare.
Healthcare
If you’ve ever been constipated, well, you might want to reach for glycerin which acts as a laxative. Another very common use is in cough medications where it serves to help lubricate the throat, soothing and reducing irritation.
Food
In food it’s used as a preservative or stabilizer to help prevent ingredients from separating. Because of its sweetness, it’s also used as a sugar substitute.
Industrial
Glycerin is used in bunches of other products but for similar purposes to the others already mentioned. One that hasn’t been touched upon is how it works as a solvent to help dissolve other substances to create a solution.
According to my research, the first time that ozonated glycerin shows up is in a Japanese study entitled, “The Bactericidal Effects of Ozone Gel” that was submitted in February of 2004. In the study, they showed that this ozonated glycerin was able to exhibit a bactericidal effect on a number of pathogens but that the stronger concentrations prepared were more effective.
Another clarification that the study made was that ozonated glycerin after two months at room temperature was still similarly effective as when it was first ozonated.
In 2005, a patent was filed by a Japanese company for an ozonated glycerol solution to be used for wound healing. This is the second citation that I have been able to find regarding ozonated glycerin.
Wound Treatment
The first uses of ozonated glycerin as identified above were to treat wounds. This is quite similar to how ozonated oils have been used through the years and it is uncertain based on current research whether ozonated glycerin has any greater effect than ozonated oils or vice versa.
Infections
A 2015 study identified ozonated gel (glycerin) as a potential agent for treating periodontal diseases. It showed that ozonated gylcerin provided a long-term sterilization effect as comparted to water which has a very short half-life.
Another study in 2021 showed that it could be part of a hand washing routine as a more gentle substitute for ethanol when protecting against the SARS virus.
Cancer
More recently, there have been whispers of research being performed by Dr. Hany Khalil of Egypt, but as of yet there is no publicly available literature to validate this.
Empirical evidence has been provided by a veterinarian, Dr. Jim Bridge, who has been using ozonated glycerin since 2018 to treat a variety of cancers through injection into and around the tumor.
Besides the empirical evidence, what we do know is that ozonated water, ozonated oils and ozone gas have been used to treat various types of cancers with some limited success.
Cosmetics
Here at Ozone Apothecary, our focus is upon the cosmetic usage of ozonated products. That’s why we offer products such as Ozone Skincare Cream to help improve your skincare routine.
As of yet, we don’t use ozonated glycerin in our products, but a study published in 2022 helped to shed light on the ability of ozonated glycerin to lighten age spots on human facial skin. The results of the study showed that formulations that had higher concentrations of ozonated glycerin were more effective in reducing the melanin in the spots leading to a more even skin tone.
Lately, I’ve had a number of clients reach out to me to ask about ozonated glycerin lately. The first time that I heard about it was during a phone call earlier this year where I was told about a presentation given by Dr. Jim Bridge at an ozone conference in May of 2024.
At that conference, Dr. Frank Shallenberger and Dr. Robert Rowen became interested in the use of ozonated glycerin. As go these two doctors, so goes the rest of the ozone world in the USA.
In August, Dr. Shallenberger released his monthly newsletter called The Second Opinion where he discussed the use of ozonated glycerin based on what he learned from Dr. Bridge.
In December, Dr. Rowen released an episode of his Rowen Report with Dr. Jim Bridge where they discussed the benefits of ozonated glycerin.
As I write this, there are a couple companies that are rushing to produce ozonated glycerin to sell to the masses. I’m not quite sure what they are selling it as.
Is it an injectable?
Is it a topical?
Is it intended to be applied full strength or diluted?
These questions are probably going to be left up to the end user, but then it seems to me that we’re going to have the likelihood that the concentration is going to be used at a level much higher than is healthy for
the skin if it’s used topically.
Yes…
Well, no…it’s not.
Actually, yes, it IS better.
On second thought, no. I would say that’s a definite NO.
Here’s the deal. Even though we’re just hearing about ozonated glycerin, it’s been a thing since 2004 and yet we really know almost nothing about it because very little research has been done on it.
My sense is that if it were going to be something that would be significantly more effective than ozone gas, ozonated saline or ozone oils, then it would have taken off during the last twenty years in the ozone community.
Might there be a place for ozonated glycerin? Absolutely.
Will it be a miracle product that takes over the world? No.
It seems like it depends on who you ask. As companies prepare to commercialize it, they are saying that it will have a 90-day expiration. Based on what I have seen, that seems shorter than what I would expect, but I guess it depends on how you store it and how much degradation is suitable.
I also reached out to my friend Dr. Sanchez who has decades of experience in formulating ozone products and as I expected, he was very skeptical about the validity of ozonated glycerin due to its lack of double bonds which oils have in abundance.
The Japanese patent from 2005 that sought to commercialize this product demonstrates that ozonated glycerin was produced and then tested to determine how long it would last.
They tested it in three different environments
At room temperature, the ozonated glycerin had a half-life of six months. When refrigerated, the half-life was sixteen months, and when frozen, the glycerin maintained 98% of its ozone even at three years.
Of course, the stability of the glycerin will depend on multiple factors and can only be confirmed by third-party testing done by a credible laboratory with experience in testing these types of products.
Although this is stated in the patent, a 90-day half-life is said to be more realistic in the studies. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information from testing laboratories that shows this information so it is impossible to verify.
There are only a few locations in the United States where you can actually get ozonated glycerin treatments to treat disease and I am aware of none where you can get ozonated glycerin as a cosmetic treatment. That will likely change over the course of 2025 as training for doctors comes into shape and products become more readily available.
With the above information, the choice is now yours. Do it, or don’t but at least you have the research.
To my knowledge, ozonated glycerin has been around since 2004 but has only recently become something that the ozone community in the USA is starting to take notice of. There is certainly potential for this product to be used for both cosmetic and therapeutic purposes, but I would advise that we take the empirical information provided with a grain of salt and temper our optimism with some realism.
We all tend to jump on the hype mobile when something like this comes around because we have an issue that we want to fix and have high hopes that this will be exactly what does it. More often than not, the results we hope for are not realized.
For our part here at Ozone Apothecary, we will continue to provide the highest quality ozone-infused products like our Ozonated Olive Oil and Ozone Shampoo. We’ll also continue to monitor the situation with ozonated glycerin and do our research to see if it makes any sense to provide this product in the future.
Stay tuned…
