Talk:Alpha hydroxycarboxylic acid

In order to improve this article, I will improve the following areas: images, sources, and content. I will add images relevant to the topic. For sources, I will remove claims without references and make sure the references are formatted correctly. I will also add content under the “Lactide-based polymers” industrial application section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cic12345 (talk • contribs) 19:53, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

It appears that this article is topically focused more in cosmetics than in chemistry. While chemically, there is such a thing as an α-hydroxy acid, it's colloquial meaning (with roots in cosmetics) takes the article (and term) outside of the arena of natural science. I made several spelling changes and added a sentence on the etymology, but changed the category to cosmetics. rmosler 10:50, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. I have no knowledge about the chemical aspect of AHA, only the cosmetic ones. More revisions and contributions would be HIGHLY appreciated.--Chicbicyclist 23:31, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Chicbicyclist, do you have sources for the information you provide, or is this information mostly from personal experience? Its tone implies original research claims. I'm not disputing what you've said, just wishing for additional references. ThanksDrawnedlac (talk) 17:35, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Safety question

Perhaps someone could clarify how a "chemical peel" is different from exfoliating with an one of these acids. WebMD mentions several of the same chemicals in their list of chemical peel agents: "glycolic acid, trichloroacetic acid, salicylic acid, lactic acid, or carbolic acid (phenol)". I'm also not quite clear on how "flaking" constitutes a side effect. Is this not what exfoliation means? --IPiAweKid (talk) 05:08, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Anon: Superficial peels remove only the dead cells of the skin – a process most often referred to as exfoliation. Medium depth peels remove skin cells deeper into the dermal layer exposing living cells and often requires 10-12 days to heal. Deep acid peels are medically performed, surgical peels, that remove living tissue and is usually reserved for severely sun damaged, wrinkled for acne-scarred, skin. Healing and recovery time can be significant. Source:http://www.healthyskinsolutions.com/glycolic-acid-how-it-works-and-what-it-does/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.170.146.139 (talk) 00:24, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Controversy?

Although their effectiveness is documented[1] numerous cosmetic products have appeared on the market with unfounded claims of performance.[2]

The sentence seems to disagree with itself. 84.227.245.245 (talk) 11:19, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

Unreferenced statements

This article has too many unreferenced statements. If those citation needed tags remain unresolved any longer I’m gonna have to remove them.CycoMa (talk) 02:36, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: CHEM 300

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2023 and 28 April 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cic12345 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: TChem987.

— Assignment last updated by RS UBC800 (talk) 21:05, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 8 June 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) – MaterialWorks ping me! 19:57, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

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• Alpha hydroxy acid → Α-Hydroxy acid
• Beta hydroxy acid → Β-Hydroxy acid
• Omega hydroxy acid → Ω-Hydroxy acid

– The current forms of the titles, with the Greek letter prefix spelled out, may be more WP:COMMONNAMEs, given their use in skin care products, but actual use of the Greek letters in the compound class names is how they are written in scientific contexts, in line with WP:CHEMPREFIX. I am not sure whether we should weight the common spelling heavily here, as being more recognizable, or attempt to use the more properly written versions as the titles. The consideration is to what extent the commercialized use has found itself into reliable sources. Obviously, redirects can be used for versions not chosen as the article titles. The uppercase Greek letters are used in the proposed titles, as all WP pages must begin with a capital letter, but {{lowercasetitle}} is used to display the lowercase Greek letter correctly. Mdewman6 (talk) 19:03, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Also, if the current forms are kept, I would argue to move to the versions containing hyphens, as being closer to the proper format. Mdewman6 (talk) 19:06, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Comment: It is possible to include the Greek letters in the page name (but not the URL), for instance α-Ketoglutaric acid. It is rarely done.

I'm not sure I understand what the benefit would be. The Romanised spellings are common across all science pages (alpha helix, beta hydroxy acid, gamma radiation etc). Presumably this is because it makes editing the pages easier, as you don't have to keep copy-and-pasting Greek characters around in order to maintain internal continuity (?) --Project Osprey (talk) 11:13, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

If you'll recall this was all discussed previously for naming of specific compounds at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemicals/Archive_2021#Article_title_format_for_compounds_with_Greek_letter_prefixes and finally at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemicals/Archive_2021#Article_title_format_for_compounds_with_Greek_letter_prefixes_2, leading to WP:CHEMPREFIX being updated, but general compound class or types are a bit different, hence the RM. Mdewman6 (talk) 22:43, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Personally I would support moving to the Greek letters for chemistry's sake, but the FDA has some public documents on alpha hydroxy acids and beta hydroxy acids with an additional industry guidance document on labelling products containing alpha hydroxy acids. In all cases the greek characters are spelled out with no hyphens and I think its a pretty safe to assume most labels (in the US at least) will follow the FDA's lead. In my opinion this is an okay justification of WP:COMMONNAME for alpha and beta hydroxy acid. Therefore, oppose the move for alpha and beta. For omega hydroxy acid, I have nothing. ― Synpath 18:14, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

That being said people coming to these articles for information on cosmetics are going to be disappointed. ― Synpath 18:19, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose The proposed new names are not even redirects at present and are not in common use. Lower-case Greek letters as redirects, so α-Hydroxy acid and β-Hydroxy acid would be acceptable to me but the current page names should be retained. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:19, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Well, all pages must begin with capital letters, hence the proposed targets. I agree redirects should be created for different versions of the names not uses as titles. Mdewman6 (talk) 22:43, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose as per the result of the recent RFC on this topic of alpha vs α. But there should be redirects created, so if anyone can figure how to type "α" they will find it. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:39, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.