• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.121-125
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of applying the Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) as a tool to enhance the skin absorption of arbutin, a well-known skin-whitening agent. Arbutin solution or skin formulation was applied on the back of hairless mouse skin in vivo after IPL treatment, and then the skin deposition of arbutin was determined by HPLC. IPL treatment significantly increased the amount of arbutin in the skin after 6 hours when arbutin solution was applied 20 times. IPL also enhanced the skin deposition of arbutin when arbutin formulation was applied, although it was not significantly different. Significant increase of surface skin temperature was observed by IPL treatment, which might be a mechanism of the enhanced skin absorption of arbutin. These results suggest the feasibility of using IPL as a tool to increase the skin absorption of whitening agents, although further research needs to be conducted to understand its exact mechanism.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2017

Ultraviolet radiation have much influenced with a deep wrinkles, roughness, laxity of skin damage and pigmentation through oxidative stress and oxidative photo-damage. This study investigates the functional properties of hydrogel facial mask sheets made from agar, Styela clava tunics and Broussonetia papyrifera tunics. The skin of S. clava is covered with a hard cellulose containing glycoprotein, glycosaminoglycan and chondroitin sulfate. B. papyrifera is better known as Paper mulberry. It contains kazinol which serves as a tyrosinase inhibitor and skin whitening agent. The tensile strength of facial mask sheet was measured by universal testing machine, and the water absorption and moisture permeability of facial mask sheet were measured by dryer. Additionally, the DPPH assay and MTT assay were conducted for anti-oxidative activity and cytotoxicity of facial mask sheet. The whitening effect of the facial mask sheet was measured by tyrosinase inhibitor assay. These tests showed that the three ingredients are suitable cosmetic materials. The results reveal that they produce a high quality hydrogel facial mask sheet when the membrane contains 1%(W/V) of agar, 0.1%(W/V) of B. papyrifera tunics and 0.05%(W/V) of S. clava tunics.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.151-167
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• 2003

Melanin biosynthesis is a human defense mechanism to protect skin from UV irradiation and also determines colors of hair and skin. However, as a interest on skin-whitening increases, researches to prevent pigmentation and hypersynthesis of melanin in skin are being actively in progress. Active components used as a whitening agent in cosmeceuticals are kojic acid, arbutin, vitamin C and hydroquinone. However, until now, because comparison researches among them in the aspect of both melanin formation and cellular toxicity have not been performed, we can't exactly estimate merits and defects of them as a whitening agent. To this end, we performed experiments to compare their effects on cell viability and melanin formation. As a first step, in vitro tyrosinase inhibition assay was done. While kojic acid and hydroquinone showed strong inhibition activities(their IC$\_$50/s are all < 100uM), arbutin and vitamin C showed weak activities. IC$\_$50/s of arbutin and vitamin C are 100uM and 400∼500uM, respectively. In B16BL6 melanoma cells, like in vitro tyrosinase inhibition assay, arbutin and kojic acid showed more strong inhibition effect on melanin synthesis than vitamin C. And unlike arbutin, vitamin C and kojic acid induced cell death at high concentration. Although arbutin showed no cytotoxicity, it has side effect to induce morphological change at high concentration.. In this paper, we suggest both kojic acid and arbutin have stronger ability to inhibit melanogenesis than vitamin C. And they also have side effect, that is, kojic acid induces cell death like vitamin C and arbutin changes cell morphology respectively.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.225-231
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• 2016

Hot water extracts from 16 domestic edible mushrooms including Pleurotus ferulae (Lanzi) X.L. Mao, Lentinula edodes (Berk.) Pegler, and Hypsizygus marmoreus (Peck) H.E. Bigelow, which are commercially available, were used for determining the cosmetic potential of these mushrooms. In this study, we carried out in vitro functional experiments to determine the inhibitory effects of these extracts on L-DOPA oxidation of tyrosinase and melanin synthesis. Based on the results of these experiments, H. marmoreus (Peck) H.E. Bigelow No. 10 and No. 15 were selected for further analysis. We analyzed the melanin synthesis inhibitory activity, TRP1 and MITF expression via real-time PCR, and Fontana Masson staining in artificial skin $Neoderm^{(R)}-ME$. Taken together, we observed that the hot water extract from H. marmoreus (Peck) H.E. Bigelow (No. 15) had better whitening effect than the extracts of other mushrooms. Thus, it can be a potential source of skin-whitening agent.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.79-85
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• 2010

Enhancement effect of ultrasonification process on UV-protection and skin-whitening activities using Centella asiatica L. Urban extract was investigated. Cytotoxicity of the extracts measured on human skin fibroblast cells, CCD-986sk, and then, ultrasonification associated extracts showed 5~9% lower cytotoxicity then normal crude extracts on 1.0 mg/$m{\ell}$ of highest sample concentration. The associated extrats showed highest inhibition activity of hyaluronidase on 1.0 mg/$m{\ell}$ of concentration as 54.2%. Also, the associated extract reduced expression of MMP-1 on UV-irradiated CCD-986sk cells down to 100.2% from 136.1%, and revealed high inhibitory potency on tyrosinase as 74.6% by adding 1.0 mg/$m{\ell}$ of concentration. Ultrasonification associated extract showed strong inhibition effect of melanin production on Clone M-3 cells as 84.2% by adding 1.0 mg/$m{\ell}$ of concentration. From the preliminary observations, we considered that the extracts from C. asiatica could be potent natural materials for skin-whitening and anti-aging agent, and could enhance the activities by ultrasonification process.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.198-201
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• 2011

Tyrosinase is one of the important enzymes in the mammalian melanin synthesis. In the process of melanin synthesis, tyrosine is oxidized to DOPA (3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine), and DOPA is further oxidized to dopaquinone. Tyrosinase is an enzyme catalyzing this oxidation of tyrosine, so chemicals that inhibit the activity of tyrosinase can be used as skin whitening agents. In this study, we isolated five constituents from the 80% MeOH extract of Morus bombycis cortex by bioactivity-guided fractionation. We performed mushroom tyrosinase inhibition assay. As a result, 7,2',4'-trihydroxyflavanone (1), 2',4',2,4,-tetrahydroxychalcone (2), and oxyresveratrol (3) showed the more potent inhibitory effect compared to kojic acid, a well-known skin whitening agent with antityrosinase effect. Moracinoside M (4) and moracin M-3'-O-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside (5) also showed the moderate tyrosinase inhibitory activities.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2010

In order to develop a new skin whitening agent, approximately 100 plant extracts were evaluated for their inhibitory activities against melanin biosynthesis in cultured mouse melanocyte melan-a cells. As a result, seven extracts exhibited over 50% inhibition of melanin synthesis compared to control at a concentration of $20\;{\mu}g/ml$. In particular, Aster ageratoides Turcz. var. ageratoides (branch, root, aerial, flower; $IC_{50}$ = 17.3, 6.1, 13.6, $12.9\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively) and Physalis alkekengi var. francheti (leaf, unripen fructus, aerial; $IC_{50}$ = 6.5, 28.3, $23.9\;{\mu}g/ml$) markedly inhibited melanin synthesis. In addition, tyrosinase activity was monitored by the measurement of dopachrome formation from the oxidation of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine. Extracts of A. ageratoides Turcz. var. ageratoides (flower) and P. alkekengi var. francheti (leaf) showed the most potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity. These plants might be the potential candidate sources in the development of novel skin-whitening products.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.30 no.3 s.47
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• pp.415-418
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• 2004

Arbutin is a glycosylated hydroquinone found at high concentration in certain plants capable of surviving extreme and sustained dehydration. It has been reported to have an inhibitory effect of melanogenesis and to be hydrolyzed easily to yield glucose and hydroquinone by ${\beta}-glucosidase.$ While hydroquinone also has an anti-melanogenic effect, however, is carefully used as a topical whitening agent because of side effects. The present study was undertaken to examine the inhibitory effect of an whitening agent containing arbutin and ${\beta}-glucosidase$ on UV radiation induced pigmentation in human skin. Experimental subjects were UVB-irradiated on the back. UVB-irradiated areas were assigned to three groups: arbutin and ${\beta}-glucosidase$ treated group, vehicle control, and no-application control. Arbutin and ${\beta}-glucosidase$ treatment inhibited pigmentation by 50.17 percent, compared with the controls (N : 10: P<0.05). These results suggest that the whitening agent containing arbutin and ${\beta}-glucosidase$may be used as an agent to inhibit melanin formation induced by UV radiation.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.199-212
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• 2000

A series of novel ascorbic acid derivatives, polyethoxylated ascorbic acid (PEAA) were synthesized by coupling ascorbic acid with polyethylene glycol (PEG) of two molecular weights (MW: 350 and 550) at the C-2 or C-3 hydroxyl group (2PEAA350, 3PEAA350, 2PEAA550, 3PEAA550) to increase the stability and retain the activity, as a skin whitening agent. Their stability, scavenging activity against free radical, inhibitory activity against tyroxinase and inhibitory activity of melanin synthesis in Bl6 melanoma cell of PEAAs were evaluated in viかo and compared with those of ascorbic acid and 3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid (3OEAA), a Con stable vitamin C derivative. Among PEAAs, 2PEAA350 and 2PEAA550 tad high scaveniging activity against See radical, inhibitory activity against tyrosinase and inhibitory activity if melanogenesis but low stability, 3PEAA350 had high stability and moderate scavenging activity against free radical, infibitory activity against tyrosinase and inhibitory activity of melanogenesis. The stability, scavenging activity against free radical and inhibitory activity of melanogenesis of 3PEAA350 were higher than those of 30EAA. The most stable 3PEAA350 among PEAAs was nontoxic in various toxicological tests. These results suggest that PEAA would be a good whitening agent far enhancing stability and bioavailability.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.85-91
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• 2008

These days there is a constant possibility of exposure to UV radiation which can cause abnormal production of melanin and result in skin disease such as hyperpigmentation and melanoma. Many materials were investigated for skin whitening and protection against UV radiation. In this study, we assessed the melanogenesis inhibitory activities of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG, Ginseng Radix Rubra) and Ginkgo (EGb 761 Ginkgo Biloba) in an attempt to develop a new skin whitening agent derived from natural products. B16F10 melanoma cells were treated for 48 hr with KRG and EGb 761. The inhibitory effect on melanogenesis was measured and related cytokines and proteins expression were also investigated by RT-PCR and Western blotting. In addition, we also assessed the effects of these substances on the skin of C57BL/6 mice. Cell growth, melanin content and tyrosinase activity were inhibited effectively in B16F10 melanoma cells treated with KRG and EGb 761. Moreover, tyrosinase mRNA expression was inhibited clearly and melanogenesis related proteins (MRPs) containing tyrosinase, TRP1 and TRP2 were also reduced by KRG and EGb761, while cytokines such as IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 were induced. In the case of UV irradiated mice, we observed induction of cytokine mRNA levels and reduction of MRPs mRNA expression. In addition, a decrease in pigmentation from treatment with KRG and EGb 761 on the skin of mice was observed. These results indicate that KRG and EGb 761 inhibit melanogenesis in B16F10 cells and have display protective activities against UVB. Therefore, we suggest that KRG and EGb 761 are good candidates to be used as whitening agents and UVB protectors for the skin.