Glutathione for skin lightening for dermatologists and cosmetologists

Abstract

<p class="abstract">Glutathione is a potential antioxidant and its reduced form (GSH) has a good skin-whitening effect in humans through its tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Many physicians consider it as a Wonder drug for skin lightening and treatment of hyperpigmentation, especially with darker skin tones. Glutathione is available in topical, oral and injectable formulations. Topical and oral forms are considered to be safe. Intravenous form did not prove its safety and efficacy to till date. In this article, we shall review and discuss the current status of glutathione as a skin lightening agent and address the miscellaneous unanswered queries regarding the dosage, duration of use and longevity of accrued effects based on clinical evidence and recent insights into its antimelanogenic mechanism.</p>

Potential Toxic Effects of Different High Doses of Glutathione Injection: An Experimental Study

“…They received 0.2 ml saline twice weekly for 13 weeks by intramuscular route. Group II: Rats were injected intramuscularly with glutathione 124 mg/kg (equivalent to the highest dose recommended by the manufacturers) (Mohan et al, 2020;Al Ghamdi et al, 2020). It was given twice per week for 13 weeks.…”

“…Although parenteral glutathione provides a high therapeutic dose that promotes its efficacy, it also has a narrow safety margin due to the possibility of overdose toxicity (Gandhi et al, 2021). The recommended dose of glutathione injection, according to the manufacturers, is 600-1200 mg, to be injected once or twice per week, with no fixed treatment and maintenance durations (Mohan et al, 2020) The desire to have a fairer skin tone and complexion in adults has become a major concern. This craze exploits the implications of skin-whitening agents, so glutathione's popularity as a "magical skinwhitening" molecule has quickly increased worldwide (Pollock et al, 2021).…”