"Vegan PDRN" now appears on K-beauty and drugstore labels as an animal-free version of the salmon-sperm DNA ingredient behind the PDRN trend. A reader who wants to know what it is meets shop listings and brand pages. This page reads the labels instead: what the ingredient names say, what six "vegan" or "phyto" PDRN products declare and where, what the plant-derived research has measured, and what is not established, as of 3 November 2026. It ranks nothing and recommends nothing.
What PDRN is, its salmon source and the injected-drug trials are on our main PDRN page. Why topical DNA meets a size barrier at the skin surface is set out on PDRN vs peptides; the serum label census is on PDRN serum.
What the label name can and cannot tell you
Cosmetic labels use INCI names, and two cover nearly every PDRN product. In the EU cosmetic-ingredient database, as reproduced on the INKEEDecoder ingredient pages on 3 November 2026:
| INCI name | Official description | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Sodium DNA | deoxyribonucleic acid, sodium salts | skin conditioning |
| Hydrolyzed DNA | deoxyribonucleic acid, hydrolyzed | hair and skin conditioning |
Neither name says where the DNA came from. "Sodium DNA" appears on salmon-branded products and on "phyto PDRN" products alike; "Hydrolyzed DNA" is on salmon-DNA lines and on The INKEY List's vegan serum. So the word "vegan" on a PDRN product is a marketing statement about the source that the ingredient list cannot confirm or contradict. A buyer who needs an animal-free product is relying on the brand's word, not the label.
Six "vegan" or "phyto" PDRN labels
The census below takes every product found on 3 November 2026 whose own name calls its PDRN "phyto" or "vegan", plus The INKEY List serum, whose brand page calls it vegan. Ingredient lists are from INKEEDecoder (formerly INCIDecoder), read through its product pages; The INKEY List's list was also read on its own product page and matched.
| Product | Ingredients listed | DNA ingredient and position | Amount stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| The INKEY List PDRN Serum | 20 | Hydrolyzed DNA, 20th (last) | brand says "20,000 PPM vegan PDRN (2%)" |
| One-day's you Phyto-PDRN Capsule Shot Ampoule 5000 | 21 | Hydrolyzed DNA, 21st (last) | 100,000 ppb (0.01%) |
| Srichand Phyto Camellia PDRN Bright Glowing Essence | 28 | Sodium DNA, 21st | — |
| Srichand Phyto Camellia PDRN Bright Glowing Serum | 35 | Sodium DNA, 27th | — |
| Arencia Pore Melt Phyto PDRN Cleansing Balm | 44 | Sodium DNA, 26th | — |
| MEDI-PEEL Phyto Exosome PDRN Lifting Shot Serum | 113 | Sodium DNA, 73rd | — |
Srichand sells two of them. Four things stand out.
Every one places the DNA in the bottom half of its list, from 20th to 73rd. Ingredients above 1% must be listed in descending order of amount; below 1% they may appear in any order.
The INKEY List's 2% claim sits below its own preservative. Its list runs Water, Propylheptyl Caprylate … Butylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol (9th) … Sodium Lactate, Hydrolyzed DNA (20th). Phenoxyethanol is permitted in EU cosmetics at no more than 1%, so the DNA itself is present at less than that. The brand's footnote explains the arithmetic: the claim is "based on clinical studies completed using 2% INJIN PDRN … ran by the ingredient supplier" — 2% of a supplier's raw material, of which the DNA is a fraction and the carriers are listed elsewhere. Artemisia capillaris, the plant the brand names as the source, does not appear in the ingredient list at all. The brand page also says the serum "will no longer be available on our website".
The one stated amount is 0.01%. One-day's you declares 100,000 ppb, which is 100 ppm — 1/200th of the 20,000 ppm on The INKEY List's front.
"Phyto" does not always mean plant. In the one human case series of a "phyto PDRN" serum found in PubMed (below), the PDRN is DNA from Lactobacillus sakei, a bacterium — animal-free, but not from a plant.
What the supplier pages say
The INKEY List names the raw material as INJIN PDRN and states that it outperforms "both animal and vegan alternatives in clinical studies". Those studies were run by the supplier. A PubMed search for INJIN on 3 November 2026 returned five records, all about Artemisia plants and none about DNA or skin, so the comparison has not been published in a journal this search could find.
What the plant-derived research has measured
A PubMed search on 3 November 2026 for PDRN or polydeoxyribonucleotide with plant, vegan, plant-derived, Artemisia, ginseng or botanical terms returned 9 records; one is a 1980 wheat-germ enzyme paper unrelated to skincare. The other eight:
| Record | Source of the DNA | What was done |
|---|---|---|
| Lee et al., Molecules 2023 (PMID 37959659) | ginseng adventitious root culture | skin cells and a lab-grown skin model; reports A2A-receptor activity |
| Bak et al., Int J Mol Sci 2025 (PMID 41516097) | peony (Paeonia lactiflora) | cell assays plus a 10-person, 2-week barrier test after deliberate irritation, and an eye-area elasticity reading at 4 weeks; all authors employed by the ingredient's maker |
| Cavagnino et al., Curr Issues Mol Biol 2025 (PMID 41614736) | rose | skin cells and skin explants under UV and pollutant stress |
| PMID 41590824 (2026) | peony callus | collagen in skin cells |
| PMID 41351364 (2025) | Saussurea involucrata | skin-cell regeneration |
| PMID 40527178 (2025) | Gynostemma pentaphyllum callus | skin-barrier markers |
| Kim et al., J Funct Biomater 2026 (PMID 42506577) | review of plant-derived PN/PDRN | evidence "remains predominantly preclinical"; head-to-head studies "remain limited" |
| Wu et al., J Drugs Dermatol 2026 (PMID 42696342) | Lactobacillus sakei | eight selected post-procedure cases from nine clinicians, split-face, real-world |
So the human evidence for a plant-derived PDRN on skin is one 10-person barrier test run by the ingredient's maker. The 2026 review — whose first author works for a plant-PDRN company — states plainly that plant material "should not be construed" as clinically equivalent to animal-derived PDRN, and that whether it acts through the same receptor "has not been directly established for most" preparations. None of the records tests a finished vegan PDRN product sold in the census above. A retraction filter on PDRN records returned two papers, neither among these.
Size, again
Whatever the source, a DNA fragment is large next to the 500-dalton rule of thumb for what passes intact skin. Our PDRN vs peptides page counts what was injected and what was applied in the published trials; the same limit applies to plant DNA.
What is and is not established
- "Vegan PDRN" is DNA from a non-animal source; the label name is identical to salmon PDRN's and cannot show the difference.
- In the six products read, the DNA sits low in the list; the one stated amount is 0.01%, and one brand's 2% claim refers to a raw material, not to DNA.
- Plant-derived PDRN has been studied mostly in cells and lab skin; one maker-run 10-person test is the human data.
- No published study shows that vegan PDRN performs like salmon PDRN, or that any finished vegan PDRN product changes skin.
A reader avoiding animal ingredients for ethical reasons is relying on the brand's statement of source; a reader choosing for effect has no published comparison to rely on yet.
Sources
Opened 3 November 2026: The INKEY List, PDRN Serum product page (theinkeylist.com/products/pdrn-serum) — claims, footnote and full ingredient list. INKEEDecoder (formerly INCIDecoder; incidecoder.com now redirects there) ingredient pages for Sodium DNA and Hydrolyzed DNA (CosIng descriptions) and product pages for the five other products in the table, searched with "vegan pdrn", "phyto pdrn", "plant pdrn" and "inkey pdrn". PubMed searches (polydeoxyribonucleotide[tiab] OR PDRN[tiab]) AND (plant[tiab] OR vegan[tiab] OR "plant-derived"[tiab] OR artemisia[tiab] OR ginseng[tiab] OR botanical[tiab]) (9 records, every title read), INJIN (5, none on DNA or skin), and (polydeoxyribonucleotide[tiab] OR PDRN[tiab]) AND Retracted Publication[pt] (2); abstracts of PMIDs 37959659, 41516097, 41614736, 42506577 and 42696342. EU limit for phenoxyethanol (1%) from Annex V of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. Corrections go to the contact page.