Whitening effect of extract from Engelhardia spicata Lechen ex Blume of native plant in Vietnam = 베트남 자생식물 Engelhardia spicata Lechen ex Blume 추출물의 미백 효과

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the whitening effect of extracts from 11 native plants in Vietnam for use as natural materials in cosmeceuticals. Firstly, tyrosinase inhibitory effect was evaluated to investigate the whitening effect of 11 plant extracts. As a result, Engelhardia spicata Lechen ex Blume extract (ESE) has shown the highest tyrosinase inhibitory effect. Therefore, ESE was used for subsequent experiments to clarify the whitening effect and its underlying mechanisms. ESE inhibited tyrosinase activity in a dose-dependent manner and the IC50 value of ESE against tyrosinase was 99 μg/mL. In addition, ESE significantly inhibited tyrosinase activity and reduced melanin contents dose-dependently in 3-isobutyl-1-methylaxanthine (IBMX)-stimulated B16F10 melanoma cells. ESE also downregulated the expression levels of key melanogenic proteins such as microphthalmia-associated transcription factor, tyrosinase-related protein 1, and tyrosinase in IBMX-stimulated B16F10 melanoma cells. In conclusion, these results firstly elucidate the antimelanogenesis effect of ESE in IBMX-induced melanoma cells. Taken together, our results demonstrate that ESE effectively inhibit melanogenesis, and could be applied in the fields of cosmeceuticals as a natural skin-whitening agent.