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2000
Volume 11, Issue 6
  • ISSN: 2215-0838
  • E-ISSN: 2215-0846
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Abstract

Background

Plant extracts have wide applications in food, nutrition, and cosmetics, which results in a deeper investigation of natural ingredients. Numerous natural ingredients have been demonstrated to exhibit multiple activities, including antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and anti-melanogenesis. However, their combinations have not been well investigated, which could provide stronger performance with less toxicity and easier applications.

Methods

We used B16F10 cells treated with alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH) for melanogenesis-related studies, including cellular melanin content, tyrosinase activity, and gene or protein expression. MTT assay was used to evaluate cell viability. DPPH scavenging activity was measured for antioxidation. Nitric oxide (NO) content was evaluated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treated RAW264.7 cells to indicate the performance on anti-inflammation.

Results

In this study, six different compounds and their combinations were tested for melanogenesis. The results showed that the combination of glabridin, resveratrol, and ellagic acid (GRE) exhibited the highest efficiency, which was mainly manifested as inhibition of melanin production and tyrosinase activity, higher DPPH scavenging rate, and inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production. Meanwhile, our results showed that GRE could significantly downregulate the expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) related genes and proteins and could also inhibit the phosphorylation of cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB), which was the upstream signal of MITF.

Conclusion

The results suggest GRE exhibits high efficiency in inhibiting anti-melanogenesis, antioxidation, and anti-inflammation. Furthermore, GRE could downregulate the phosphorylation of the CREB and MITF signal pathway, which provides a theoretical basis for its application in pigmentation disorder disease and cosmetics.

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Bentham Science Publishers.
This is an open access article published under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
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Exploring the Anti-melanogenic, Antioxidant, and Anti-inflammatory Activities of a Composition: Glabridin, Resveratrol and Ellagic Acid
Current Traditional Medicine 11, E22150838296794 (2025); https://doi.org/10.2174/0122150838296794240610130259
/content/journals/ctm/10.2174/0122150838296794240610130259
/content/journals/ctm/10.2174/0122150838296794240610130259
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  • Article Type:     Research Article
Keyword(s): ellagic acid; glabridin; Melanogenesis; MITF; resveratrol; tyrosinase

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