원문정보
초록
영어
There is a growing need to find skin depigmenting agents from natural sources in the cosmeceutic and pharmaceutical markets since natural sources can overcome side effects of skin whitening chemical compounds. To screen for novel hypopigmenting agents from 57 herbs growing in Vietnam and 45 herbs in China, methanol extracts were prepared and treated with B16F10 murine melanoma cells. Melanin contents were also measured by melanin assay as well as cell viability by MTT assay. Twelve Vietnamese plants and eight Chinese plants revealed high potentials as skin whitening agents and showed low cytotoxicity. In addition, the antioxidant activity of each extract was examined by DPPH assay and tyrosinase inhibitory activity by cell-based tyrosinase assay. Fifteen of fifty seven Vietnamese herbs and fourteen of forty five Chinese herbs showed high antioxidant activity, but they did not have an effect on in vitro catalytic activity of mushroom tyrosinase. These results suggest that further isolation of active fractions of the methanol extracts may contribute to the development of novel skin whitening ingredients in the cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries.