SKIN CARE 33
was able to establish a composition that worked superior to kojic acid, hydroquinone, and the individual extracts alone. The sum of the group of ingredients exceeded the performance of the individual extract components and the positive chemical controls. This optimised blend became the technology called the new complex. This optimised blend became the technology referred to here as the new complex. BioNap, BotanicalsPlus, and the University of Catania spent a significant amount of time and research to build, test, and optimise the complex mixture of natural skin pigment controlling ingredients.
In vitro testing results
The sophisticated chemical dance of the melanin granules moving from the melanocytes to the target keratinocytes and eventually into the cells to form an umbrella over the sensitive nuclear material inside the cell is beyond the scope of this article.15 But, it is apparent that ingredients that can control skin pigmentation can function on multiple levels at multiple strategic targets within the biosynthetic pathways of melanin creation. Tyrosinase enzyme controls the expression of melanin in the skin regardless of whether the melanin is under genomic control (i.e., natural skin colour) or is expressed because of external aggressors. Tyrosinase catalyses the first two steps of melanin synthesis: the oxidation of tyrosine to L-Dopa and the subsequent conversion of L-Dopa to dopaquinone. These constitute the rate-limiting steps to the eventual biosynthesis of the melanin polymer as the remaining conversions proceed spontaneously. Rizza et al. examined the pigment-
controlling blend using a well-established tyrosinase inhibition assay. In this assay, the positive controls were kojic acid and hydroquinone.16
The University of Catania
examined concentrations of the extract blend against comparable concentrations of purified kojic acid from 12 µg/ml to 100 µg/ml in the assay. Figure 3 shows the percentage inhibitory activity for 50 µg/ml of the kojic acid (KA), hydroquinone (HQ), caper buds (CB), red orange extract (ROE), rice extract (RE), olive extract (OE) and the combination blend (BLE). At all concentrations examined, the blended botanical extract showed superior performance to kojic acid and hydroquinone at inhibiting tyrosinase activity as measured by the assay.
Clinical testing results Following in vitro optimisation of the blend of the four strategic extracts, Rizza et al. conducted a clinical study on 15 people looking at the impact of the blended product against hydroquinone, and kojic acid against a placebo cream without
September 2018
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
KA HQ
*
*
*
* *
CB
ROE
RE
OE
BLE
Figure 3: Percentage inhibitory activity against tyrosinase enzyme for 50 µg/ml of various test materials including: kojic acid (KA), Hydroquinone (HQ), caper buds (CB), Red Orange Extract (ROE), Rice Extract (RE), Olive Extract (OE) and the blend of the four botanical components (BLE).16 values that are statistically significant (p<0.05) versus kojic acid and hydroquinone.
Asterisks indicate actives.16 The percentage of inhibition
of melanogenesis was measured using reflectance spectrophotometry, a skin pigment measuring technique that was developed for skin applications by researchers at the University of Catania.17 It was found that topical treatment of the skin with the botanical blend for 4 weeks after an initial week of exposure to simulated sunlight for 2-8 minutes at one MED on the volar forearm provided
1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
Placebo HQ KA Figure 4: Reductions in melanogenesis as measured by reflectance spectroscopy.17
approximately 80% inhibition of melanogenesis versus comparable effects from hydroquinone and only 60% inhibition from kojic acid (Fig 4). The blended product showed non-statistically significant performance versus hydroquinone as similar concentrations indicating that the blend provides comparable skin lightening effects to hydroquinone. Interestingly, it was apparent in the study that while the hydroquinone worked well,
* BLE Results are
measured as area under a response curve (AUC). Test materials include placebo cream, cream with 3 grams hydroquinone (HQ), cream with 3 grams of kojic acid (KA) and a cream with 3 grams of the botanical blend (BLE).16
Asterisk indicates there was no statistical significance (p>0.05) against the formulation containing hydroquinone indicating the two ingredients function similarly. PERSONAL CARE EUROPE
Area under curve (AUC) responses
Inhibitory activity (%)
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