Whitening and Antioxidant Effects of a Mixture of Poria cocas, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, and Ulmus macrocarpa Extracts

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are known to lead to oxidation of lipids, proteins, and DNA and cause skin damage. Moreover, ROS promote melanogenesis, which causes melasma, age spots, and freckle. The main compounds of the herbal medicines Poria cocas, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, and Ulmus macrocarpa were reported to be parchymic acid, glabridin, and flavonoids, respectively. The aim of this study was to investigate the whitening and antioxidant effects of a mixture of P. cocas, G. uralensis, and U. macrocarpa extracts (PGUE) in B16F1 cells to develop whitening cosmetics. PGUE inhibited DPPH radicals and lipid peroxidation, in addition to high reduction power, compared with Glycyrrhiza uralensis ethylacetate extracts (GUEE). Furthermore, PGUE exhibited a protective effect against DNA oxidation induced by the hydroxyl radicals. In addition to its antioxidant activity, the inhibitory activity of PGUE against tyrosinase, which is associated with melanogenesis, was greater than that of arbutin used as a positive control. Moreover, PGUE exerted an inhibitory effect on melanin synthesis in live melanoma cells and reduced the expression levels of superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1) and tyrosinase related protein-1 (TRP-1). These results indicate that PGUE has skin whitening and antioxidant effects, suggesting that this mixture can be used as the main ingredient in the development of effective whitening cosmetics.

Alleviated Oxidative Damage by Taraxacum officinale through the Induction of Nrf2-MAPK/PI3K Mediated HO-1 Activation in Murine Macrophages RAW 264.7 Cell Line

“…Activated Nrf2 can translocate into the nucleus and bind the antioxidant response element (ARE), which can lead the gene expression of various antioxidative enzymes including HO-1 [5]. Additionally, numerous lines of research indicate that multiple signaling molecules such as mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) play a critical role in the regulation of the Nrf2 activation [6,7,8]. Therefore, Nrf2 plays an important role in transcriptional regulation of antioxidative genes and Nrf2 mediated signaling pathway can be mediated by MAPKs and PI3K [9].…”