There are AHA sound-alikes, including sugarcane extract, mixed fruit acids, fruit extracts, milk extract, and citrus extract. You may think you’ve purchased a more natural AHA product when you see these less-technical names, but that isn’t the case. Although glycolic acid is derived from sugarcane, and lactic acid from milk, that doesn’t mean that sugarcane extract or milk extract are the same as glycolic or lactic acid, even though they do share these acids’ water-binding properties, in much the same way as salicylic acid shares the anti-inflammatory properties of its close relation, aspirin.
Unless you see glycolic, lactic, malic, tartaric, or citric acid on the ingredient list, the exfoliation picture will be all too vague and meaningless, making it impossible to determine what you are really buying. My advice is to be very suspicious of any product that claims an association with AHAs but contains a variety of ingredients that are only sound-alikes.