THE STUDY ON TISSUE CULTURED WILD MOUNTAIN GINSENG(Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer) ADVENTITIOUS ROOTS EXTRACT AS A COSMETIC INGREDIENT

  • Published : 2003.09.01

Abstract

Korean ginseng(Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer) known as a oriental miracle drug is an important medicinal plant. Ginseng has been used for geriatric, tonic, stomachic, and aphrodisiac treatments for thousands years. Also, it is an antibiotic and has therapeutic properties against stress and cancer. Ginseng is widely distributed all over the world. Among them, Korean mountain ginseng has the most valuable effect on pharmaceuticals. The roots of mountain ginseng contained several kinds of ginsenosides that have many active functions for the human body. However, the study of mountain ginseng has a limit because the mountain ginseng is very expensive and rare. So, we artificially cultured mountain ginseng adventitious roots using the bioreactor culture system. We induced callus from original mountain ginseng, directly dug up in mountain and aged about one hundred ten years. Separated adventitious roots were precultured in 500ml conical flasks and then, transferred in 20L bioreactors. The adventitious roots of mountain ginseng were harvested after culturing for 40days, dried and then, extracted with several solvents. In this study, we investigated the whitening effect, anti-wrinkle effect and the safety of tissue cultured adventitious roots extract of mountain ginseng in order to identify the merit as a cosmetic ingredient. Particularly, extract of mountain ginseng adventitious roots showed whitening and anti-wrinkle effects. The inhibitory effect of this extract on the melanogenesis was examined using B-16 melanoma cell. When B-16 melanoma cells were cultured with adventitious root extract, there was a dramatically decrease in melanin contents of 8-16 melanoma cell. And we identified this extract inhibited Dopa auto-oxidation significantly. Also, when transformed mouse fibroblast L929 cells were treated with this extract, there was a significant increase in collagen synthesis. The results show significant inhibited melanization and wrinkle without inhibiting cell viability.

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