Ceramides: A Biologically Attractive Lipid and Advances in Acquisition Strategies

Ceramides (Cer), as bioactive substances, hold significant research importance in fields such as biology, medicine, and daily chemicals. As a significant bioactive substance, Cer has garnered considerable attention in various fields in recent years. Especially in the field of daily chemicals, Cer serves as a core functional ingredient in skincare products, which ameliorate skin dryness and sensitivity and reinforce the barrier function of the stratum corneum. Among them, ultra-long-chain Cer assemble compact and ordered epidermal lipid layers to block exogenous oxidative stress, reduce intracellular ROS accumulation, and mitigate lipid-peroxidation-mediated skin barrier damage, while excess medium- and short-chain Cer disrupt the ordered arrangement of stratum corneum lipids and further aggravate cutaneous oxidative-stress imbalance. Such chain-length-dependent functional divergence reflects the core regulatory effect of structure-activity relationships on cutaneous physiological phenotypes. The acquisition of Cer is of great significance for advancing their research and applications. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive reviews that introduce the acquisition pathways of Cer and discuss efficient preparation strategies for different methods. Cer and their related raw materials can be obtained through three main pathways: microbial fermentation, natural extraction, and chemical synthesis. This review provides a comprehensive comparison and analysis of these three approaches, focusing on recent advancements and developments in the field. The purpose of this review is to enable researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current research status of the preparation strategies for biological Cer. And the discussion of these studies will be propitious to the future improvement of green synthesis and large-scale production, further promoting the wide application of Cer.