E1203 Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) is a semi-crystalline chemical compound commercially produced from polyvinyl acetate hydrolysed by ester interchange in the presence of aqueous sodium hydroxide, anhydrous sodium methylate and methanol.

It appears in the form of a white powder. 

What it is used for and where

It is a synthetic polymer that, thanks to some interesting features, make it widely usable in medical, industrial, food applications: it is non-toxic, soluble in water, biocompatible and biodegradable in human tissues, insoluble in most organic solvents and has excellent gas barrier properties.

It is found in cleaning products, cosmetics, food packaging, agriculture, construction, water treatment, pharmaceuticals, soft contact lenses, wound dressing, etc.

Food

An ingredient listed in the European food additives list as E1203 with the function of preserving the integrity of ingredients that may degrade with moisture, oxygen or other environmental components. It has the function of masking odours and flavours.

Cosmetics

Film-forming agent. It produces a continuous ultra-thin film with an optimal balance of cohesion, adhesion and stickiness on the skin or hair to counteract or limit damage from external phenomena such as chemicals, UV rays and pollution.

Viscosity control agent. It controls and adapts viscosity to the required level for optimal chemical and physical stability of the product and dosage in gels, suspensions, emulsions, solutions. 

Medical

Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) is a promising treatment for periodontal tissue defects, which generally uses a membrane to build a mechanical barrier from the gingival epithelium and hold space for the periodontal regeneration especially the tooth-supporting bone. In this study, fish collagen and polyvinyl alcohol (Col/PVA) dual-layer membrane were developed via a combined freezing/thawing and layer coating method (1).

Iodophor (povidone-iodine) has been widely used for antibacterial applications in the clinic. Yet, limited progress in the field of iodine-based bactericides has been achieved since the invention of iodophor. Herein, a blue polyvinyl alcohol-iodine (PAI) complex-based antibacterial hydrogel is explored as a new generation of biocompatible iodine-based bactericides (2).

Open wound dressings should provide a moist environment, protect the wound from bacterial contamination, and shield it from further damage. These requirements, however, are hard to accomplish since such wounds are colonized by pathogenic bacteria, including resistant species such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In this study a new approach for treating open wounds that is based on sticky and dissolvable polyvinyl alcohol (3).

Pharmaceuticals

Polyvinyl alcohol has a viscous consistency and due to this characteristic is used in film coatings of capsules, tablets and others.

Safety

Orally administered polyvinyl alcohol is relatively harmless (5).

Other uses

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) by fused deposition modeling (FDM) has gained momentum as a promising pharmaceutical manufacturing method due to encouraging forward-looking perspectives in personalized medicine preparation. The current challenges the technology has for applicability in the fabrication of solid dosage forms include the limited range of suitable pharmaceutical grade thermoplastic materials. The findings of this work disclosed a new perspective regarding material considerations for the preparation of polyvinyl alcohol -based solid dosage forms by coupling hot melt extrusion (HME) and FDM-3DP (4).

The most relevant studies on this ingredient have been selected with a summary of their contents:

Polyvinyl Alcohol studies

• Molecular Formula: C₂H₄O   [-CH₂CHOH-]_n
• Molecular Weight: 44.05 g/mol
• CAS: 9002-89-5
• UNII 532B59J990
• EC Number: 209-183-3    618-340-9
• DSSTox Substance ID: DTXSID4031930    DTXSID8051467
• MDL number  MFCD00081922

Synonyms: 

• Mowiol® 18-88
• Ethenol
• Vinyl alcohol
• Hydroxyethene
• Hydroxyethylene
• CHEMBL76101
• Ethenol, homopolymer
• Elvanol
• Gohsenol
• Poval
• Polyviol
• Alcotex 17F-H
• Rhodoviol
• Alkotex
• Polydesis
• Gelvatol
• Polyvinol
• Covol
• Vinalak
• Lemol
• Vinarol
• Gohsenol
• Vinarole
• Lamephil 
• Alvyl

References_______________________________________________________________

(1) Zhou T, Chen S, Ding X, Hu Z, Cen L, Zhang X. Fabrication and Characterization of Collagen/PVA Dual-Layer Membranes for Periodontal Bone Regeneration. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Jun 9;9:630977. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.630977.

(2) Miao Z, Sun Y, Tao Z, Chen Y, Ma Y, Zhu D, Huang X, Zha Z. Thermochromic Polyvinyl Alcohol-Iodine Hydrogels with Safe Threshold Temperature for Infectious Wound Healing. Adv Healthc Mater. 2021 Jun 24:e2100722. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202100722.

(3) Ben David N, Mafi M, Nyska A, Gross A, Greiner A, Mizrahi B. Bacillus subtilis in PVA Microparticles for Treating Open Wounds. ACS Omega. 2021 May 20;6(21):13647-13653. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c00790.

(4) Crișan AG, Porfire A, Ambrus R, Katona G, Rus LM, Porav AS, Ilyés K, Tomuță I. Polyvinyl Alcohol-Based 3D Printed Tablets: Novel Insight into the Influence of Polymer Particle Size on Filament Preparation and Drug Release Performance. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2021 May 1;14(5):418. doi: 10.3390/ph14050418.

(5) DeMerlis CC, Schoneker DR. Review of the oral toxicity of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Food Chem Toxicol. 2003 Mar;41(3):319-26. doi: 10.1016/s0278-6915(02)00258-2.