Extraction And Separation Skin-whitening Agent From Rhizoma Chuanxiong And Its Application In Cosmetics

Chuanxiong is the dry root of Ligusticum Chuanxiong Hort, perennial herb, which hasmany pharmacologically activity of blood circulation, qi Gloomy, chills and pain. Bytracing the activity of tyrosinase inhibition to find the active ingredient in Chuanxiong, andused in cosmetics. Developed Chuanxiong cream with whitening effect, providingexperimental evidence and theoretical foundation for the development of the market. Themain research results are as follows.1)The optimum reaction conditions of inhibition on tyrosinase activity. Arbutin as theresearch object, by the single factor experiment method to study the phosphate buffer,substrate L-tyrosine,tyrosinase, holding time and response time respectively, study itsinfluence on inhibit tyrosinase activity. The experimental results show that the pH value ofPhosphate Buffer Solution was6.8，the volume of L-Tyrosine was1.0mL, the volume oftyrosinase was1.0mL, time in water bath before tyrosinase added was10minutes andreacting time was10minutes.2)Screening of whitening Chinese medicine. The water and ethanol extracts of RadixOphiopogonis, Radix astragali, Chuanxiong and motherwort were determined its crudeextract inhibit tyrosinase activity and remove the effect of DPPH, respectively. Screeningthe traditional Chinese medicine with whitening and anti-oxidation effect. The resultsshowed that Chuanxiong has the stronger inhibition than others; Chuanxiong andmotherwort has strong antioxidant activity. Therefore, the Chuanxiong was the potentialdevelopment medicine for whitening efficacy.3)The processing conditions of ethanol extract of Chuanxiong were optimized. Ontyrosinase activity rate as the index, the processing conditions of ethanol extract of Chuanxiong were optimized with single factor experiment and orthogonal design test. Theresults showed that the optimum extracting condition was obtained as the concentration ofethanol was70%, time for refluxing was3h, the ratio of material and solvent was1：10andrepeat the process for2times.4)The whitening active ingredient isolated from Chuanxiong. The ethanol extract wasfurther separated with solvents of different polar such as petroleum ether,trichloromethane,ethyl acetate and n-butylalcohol and their inhibitory capability againsttyrosinase were compared. It had found that the inhibitory capability of ethylacetate-extracted fraction against tyrosinase wad the strongest. The extract of ethyl acetatewas purified by silica gel column chromatography, The results showed that the strongestinhibition was Dc. To identify the skin whitening agent by TLC and HPLC, the result ofTCL was a single spot, the result of HPLC was single piece. Compared with standard,thewhitening active ingredients was ferulic acid.5)The development of Chuanxiong in cream. Chuanxiong cream were developedrespectively by complex different emulsifier and different thickener, evaluate its byphysicochemical and sensory evaluation. The results showed that：select Montanov202andSIMULSOL165emulsifier compound,and hydroxyethyl cellulose complex Sepiplus400asthickener system. Which is consistent with the use of the quality cosmetics, and stable,suitable for the development of Chuanxiong cream.6)The dosage range of whitening efficacy and safety were studied in Chuanxiongcream. Developed the Chuanxiong cream, which contains different amount of active.Evaluate its by stability、heavy metal content、skin irritation and whitening effect. Theresults showed：The content of heavy metal confirm to the requirement in cosmetic hygiene;After3months of stability experiments, the amount of stability ranging0.2%-1.0%; theamount of safety ranging0.2%-1.5%; the amount of whitening efficacy ranging0.5%-1.5%;therefore, the optimum amount of Chuanxiong ranging from0.5%-1.0%.