The hunt for natural skin whitening agents

Skin whitening products are commercially available for cosmetic purposes in order to obtain a lighter skin appearance. They are also utilized for clinical treatment of pigmentary disorders such as melasma or postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. Whitening agents act at various levels of melanin produc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences Vol. 10; no. 12; pp. 5326 - 5349
Main Authors Smit, Nico, Vicanova, Jana, Pavel, Stan
Format Journal Article Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI AG 10.12.2009
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Subjects
cosmetics
Enzyme Inhibitors - pharmacology
Humans
Melanins - metabolism
Monophenol Monooxygenase - antagonists & inhibitors
Monophenol Monooxygenase - metabolism
natural agents
Review
Skin - drug effects
Skin - metabolism
Skin Lightening Preparations - pharmacology
tyrosinase inhibitors
whitening
whitening
natural agents
cosmetics
tyrosinase inhibitors
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Summary:Skin whitening products are commercially available for cosmetic purposes in order to obtain a lighter skin appearance. They are also utilized for clinical treatment of pigmentary disorders such as melasma or postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. Whitening agents act at various levels of melanin production in the skin. Many of them are known as competitive inhibitors of tyrosinase, the key enzyme in melanogenesis. Others inhibit the maturation of this enzyme or the transport of pigment granules (melanosomes) from melanocytes to surrounding keratinocytes. In this review we present an overview of (natural) whitening products that may decrease skin pigmentation by their interference with the pigmentary processes.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
content type line 23
ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms10125326