Safer nano sunscreens

Nanoparticles from English ivy were found block UV light more efficiently, were less toxic and were easily biodegradable compared a nanoparticle used in many of today’s sunscreens.

Journal of Nanobiotechnology, 2010, 8:12:

Lijin Xia, et al.  Naturally occurring nanoparticles from English ivy: an alternative to metal-based nanoparticles for UV protection

Further commentary

in Science News blog

TechNyou comment

Very interesting stuff, but from my understanding, the research team used cultures of English Ivy for this research.  For any commercial prospects I assume the organic nanoparticles would need to be able to be chemically synthesized to be viable commerically, which would suggest it would have a fair way to go before it is used in any commercial sunscreen. Or do I assume wrong?