• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.31 no.2 s.51
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• pp.153-159
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• 2005

In this study, we investigated the application of an extract from Ephedra sinica which has been composed of traditional Korean medicine as a whitening ingredient. The extract of Ephedra sinica which was obtained from the mixture of methanol and water (1:1) the inhibitory effect of tyrosinase. Then, Ephedra sinica was extracted by two different solvents. One was water and the other was methylene chloride. Only, the water extract of Ephedra sinica showed the inhibitory effort of tyrosinase; the anti-tyrosinase activity with $0.2\%$ of the water extract was $60.6\%$. But the extract of Ephedra sinica in methylene chloride fraction showed little inhibitory effect on tyrosinase. The inhibitory effect of the concentrated water extract of Ephedra sinica was tested on L-DOPA auto-oxidation and melanin synthesis in B-16 melanoma. In L-DOPA auto-oxidation, $0.5\%$ of the concentrated water extract showed $87\%$ of inhibition of L-DOPA auto-oxidation and the $0.75\%$ concentrated Ephedra sinica extract in wafer fraction inhibited $98.8\%$ of that. In melanin synthesis of B-16 melanoma, the concentrated water effect of Ephedra sinica inhibited $70.2\%$ or $79.9\%$ of inhibitory effect on that at the concentration of $0.05\%$ or $0.075\%$, respectively. For verifying the skin whitening effect of the concentrated water extract of Ephedra sinica in vivo, we performed the clinical test of that. The research showed the significant skin whitening effect of a cream containing $0.5\%$ Ephedra sinica extract and the statistical analysis showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) between sample (containing $0.5\%$ Ephedra sinica extract) and placebo after 10 weeks.