No abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the skin whitening effect of the extracts of 3 herbs, Ligularia fischeri, Solidago virga-aurea and Aruncus dioicus, which were collected from Ullung island.Tyrosinase inhibition activities were 33% in pre-fermented extracts and 45% in post-fermented ones. When tyrosinase activities in B16F10 murine melanoma cells were tested, activities in pre-and post-fermented extracts were 41 and 56.5%, respectively. Thus, the post-fermented extracts might have greater skin whitening effects. The protein expression of MITF, TRP-1, TRP-2, and tyrosinase, which are all skin-whitening related transcription factors, showed that both pre-and post-fermented herbs inhibited protein biosynthesis in B16F10 melanoma cells. Post-fermented herb extracts especially showed a greater decrease of protein expressions. The expression of MITF, a regulatory transcription factor, was also decreased by both extracts but was greater in the post-fermented ones. From the results, it can be concluded that the 3 herb extracts from Ullung island may inhibit melanin biosynthesis by the suppression of MITF activity in a signaling pathway. Results indicate that the post-fermented herbs tested in the present study had skin whitening activities and can be used as functional ingredients for food and cosmetic compositions.

Plants and their extracts can be utilized as inexpensive and rich resources of active constituents in the cosmetic field, as well as the food, pharmaceutical and medicinal fields. Until now, Aster glehni Fr. Schm. had no known active effect, except on anti-oxidation, that was found during investigations for application in the cosmetic field. In this study, we examined the inhibition of enzymatic reactions to protein levels in inclusive B16F10 melanoma cell lines. Significant inhibition of enzymatic reactions was observed in the EtOAc extract, which advanced to tyrosinase protein and TRP-1 in the B16F10 melanoma cell line. These results indicated that the effect of EtOAc extract inhibited expressions of tyrosinase protein and TRP-1 in the B16F10 melanoma cell line by 30.5% and 41.5% at 100ug/ml respectively. On the other hand, antimicrobial activity was evaluated to the four fractions in normal flora of the skin. Hexane extract was only exhibited in the higher clear zone in all strains. In con-