Antioxidant and Whitening effect of Elfvingia Applanata(EA) Extract

Lee, Myeong-sim; Ahn, Hong-seok

Journal of the Korean Society of Cosmetology 2016;22(4):811-817.
Published online August 31, 2016.

잔나비걸상 버섯 추출물의 항산화 및 미백효과

이명심, 안홍석

Antioxidant and Whitening effect of Elfvingia Applanata(EA) Extract

Myeong-sim Lee, Hong-seok Ahn

Abstract

Elfvingia applanata (EA) is distributed worldwide including our country. It consists of suberin; and EA extract is well-known to have anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and immune enhancing effect, etc. Besides them, whitening effect of EA extract has not been proven efficient. This study provided clear evidence that EA extract has antioxidant effect through DPPH free radical scavenging activity and whitening effect by using melanoma cells. Accordingly, a high antioxidant activity showed as a result of DPPH free-radical scavenging activity. The findings indicated that melanin content decreased concentration-dependently in terms of skin whitening effect after applying EA extract at non-toxic concentration to B16F10 (melanoma cell). In addition, EA extract also showed tyrosinase inhibitory activity although it was lower than the same amount of kojic acid. EA extract was confirmed to increase concentration-dependently and inhibit melanin synthesis by comparison with the existing kojic acid which is well-known for whitening effects; and activity of tyrosinase, which is the most important protein for melanin synthesis, reduced as EA extract was applied. Accordingly, the analysis reveals that EA extract contains a large amount of effective component related to whitening effect. EA is known as a medicinal mushroom generally in our country which is used in folk medicine. However, there are not many studies on EA`s exact physiological activity effect. On the basis of the analysis, the study illustrate EA`s antioxidant and skin whitening effect to use it as functional cosmetic materials.

Key Words: Antioxidant, Elfvingia applanata(EA), Melanin, Tyrosinase, Whitening