Investigation of Environment-Friendly Skin Whitening Agents from the Plant Polyscias balfouriana L.H. Bailey

Abstract

Skin is the most visible organ in the body. The use of whitening agents can help skin to glow and lighten the colour by reducing the melanin concentration. Despite using synthetic whitening agents which contain heavy metals like mercury that are toxic and not environment-friendly, it is always better to consume environment friendly whitening agents which are produced using natural products and to achieve sustainable development goals. The Polyscias balfouriana L.H.Bailey belonging to family Araliaceae, leaves were used to find activities which inhibit the melanin synthesis that leads to whitening the skin. The leaves were extracted using hexane, ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate. The obtained extracts were used to determine the antityrosinase activity. Inhibitory activity of the mushroom tyrosinase method was used to determine the antityrosinase activity. The most effective activity (48% inhibition) was observed for the ethanol extract with the concentration of 0.25 mg/mL. The standard (kojic acid) showed only 22% inhibition at the same concentration. However, when the ethanol extract concentration was raised the antityrosinase activity declined. This observation was opposite to the behaviour of standard. The other two extracts followed a similar trend to that of ethanol. Therefore, according to the results Polyscias balfouriana L.H.Bailey leaves show some positive antityrosinase activity.