• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.358-366
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Glycyrrhiza glabra extracts with various countries of origin. Three samples of licorice with various origins (Korea, China, and Uzbekistan) were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities against six skin microflora. The bioassay applied for determining the antimicrobial effects included the disc diffusion assay, minimum inhibitory concentration, and challenge test. The ethyl acetate fractions of G. uralensis and G. glabra extracts showed significant antimicrobial activities against two gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis, Propionibacterium acnes) and two gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. These samples had much more intensive antimicrobial activities than synthetic preservatives on B. subtilis, P. acnes, and P. aeruginosa, especially. Korean licorice showed the highest antimicrobial activity amongst the samples tested. In view of the observed inhibitory features of these G. uralensis and G. glabra extracts, it is suggested that they could be used as natural antiseptics against bacterial contamination in cosmetics and foods, instead of the common synthetic preservatives currently employed.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.359-364
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• 2014

In this study, we developed a HPLC method for the separation and analysis of methylparaben and p-anisic acid, which are commonly used as a synthetic preservative and natural preservative, respectively. Methylparaben and p-anisic acid have same molecular weight (152.15 g/mol), similar structure and same maximum absorption wavelength (250 nm), thus they showed same retention time (RT) value (13.3 min) in HPLC experiment. We observed that two substances are separated on C18 column after methylparaben was derivatized selectively through the acetylation reaction. Instead, RT of the acetylated methylparaben was moved to 23.9 min from 13.3 min. The average retention time was $23.9{\pm}0.1min$ and peak area values was $5042882{\pm}4778$. In addition it showed a high linearity in the calibration curve with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9999658. Detection and quantitation limits were $1.47{\mu}g/mL$ and $4.44{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. In conclusion, the developed method can be useful for separation and analysis of preservatives with similar structure in cosmetic fields.