ErgoPharm Skulpt 60cc

ErgoPharm Skulpt 60cc

Topically applied products meant for localized fat loss of problem areas have been on the market for a few years now. These products contain lipolytic ingredients such as yohimbine hydrochloride, aminophylline, and forskolin. The intention of these products is to deliver the active ingredients through the skin and into the subcutaneous adipose tissue, where they will then act to break down and remove the fat (a process called “lipolysis”).

While somewhat effective, these products suffer from some insufficiencies that prevent the formulations from exhibiting their full potential. I will present to you what these insufficiencies are, and also the solutions to these insufficiencies ­ solutions that ErgoPharm has now incorporated into Skulpt.

Here I present to you a little chemistry lesson. The topic of this lesson is the properties of a class of compounds called alkaloids. Alkaloids are natural compounds from plants that contain a basic (as in alkaline) nitrogen atom in their chemical structure. In nature, alkaloids exist in their “free base” form. However, since alkaloids contain basic nitrogen atoms, they can also form crystalline salts with acids such as hydrochloric acid. For instance, the addition of hydrochloric acid to ephedrine gives ephedrine hydrochloride.

Alkaloid acid salts (such as hydrochloride) are usually the preferred form of alkaloids that people deal with because they are usually high melting, stable, and crystalline ­ as opposed to the free bases which are often low melting, somewhat unstable, and often semi-solid (sometimes even liquid).

The hydrochloride salts are also quite water soluble, as opposed to the free bases that have very poor water solubility ­ but high lipid solubility. This high water solubility is often a big advantage for pharmacists and chemists under certain circumstances, however for the purposes of transport through the skin (as in a topical spray) this high water solubility and low lipid solubility is not desirable.

In the case of delivering alkaloids through the skin we want to use the free base form, not the hydrochloride salt form.
Why is this? Simple ­ the barrier layer of the skin (stratum corneum) is composed of dead skin cells surrounded by channels comprised primarily of lipids. Obviously we want something that can dissolve through these lipid channels and penetrate this natural barrier. Hydrochloride salts cannot do this well, free bases can.

It is for this reason that the alkaloid content of Skulpt ­ which includes yohimbine and octopamine ­ are present within the formula in free base form. Mind you, this is not an easy thing to do. Yohimbine is notoriously unstable in the free base form. ErgoPharm had to conduct extensive research into finding a formula that would allow the free base yohimbine to exist with a reasonable shelf life. Fortunately we were successful, and the end result is the premier topical fat loss formula — Skulpt.

Other Ingredients: Dimethylsulfoxide USP grade, 2-Propanol, Water, Menthol, Para-Aminobenzoic Acid, Sodium Metabisulfite