Amphoteric surfactants introduction

The consumer need for a milder dishwashing liquid was met in the early 1990s with the successful introduction of Palmolive Sensitive Skin and the milder positioning of Ivory LDLD. The use of nonionic and amphoteric surfactants resulted in clinically milder and less irritating products. In the last decade, however, further improving mildness was a significant objective for the major players in the LDLD market. Dawn Hand Care was the first to introduce protease, an enzyme that is claimed to soften skin by exfoliation of the top layer. 

Due to the availability of only limited analytical methods at the time of their market introduction, it was assumed that these surfactants also possessed the cyclic structure of the precursor (4). In later years, it turned out that they are more correctly described by an open-chain structure (30, 31). In contrast to the well-defined composition of amidopropyl betaines, aminoethylethanolamine-derived amphoterics often are complex mixtures of different types of compounds and impurities. The composition of the mixtures varies with the production parameters. 

---