Technically Speaking: Medicinal Herbs for Antiaging and Other Topics

By: Charles Fox, Independent Consultant

Posted: April 2, 2007, from the April 2007 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.

Skin and Skin Care
SC properties and skin feel: Akiyama et al. report on the change in skin feel of products by skin surface properties. To examine application sensory properties of skin care creams on damaged skin, researchers conducted sensory evaluation on skin feel properties of creams before and after treatment with an aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Friction coefficients, water content of the stratum corneum (SC), sebum content and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) of normal skin and SDS-damaged skin also were measured.

The results showed that upon application of skin care creams, the sensory values for damaged skin were lower than values for normal skin. Thus, skin feel became worse with SDS treatment. This effect is a result of a change in the fluidity of skin care creams on the skin’s surface, which is due to a decrease in hydrophobicity of the skin surface caused by the SDS treatment. During this treatment, sebum and SC lipids are removed from the skin surface.

Melothria heterophylla in antiaging: Hanbul Cosmetics Co. Ltd. discloses an antiaging cosmetic composition comprising an extract of Melothria heterophylla for removing free radicals, promoting collagen synthesis, and inhibiting activity and expression of collagenase (matrix metalloproteinase-1 or MMP-1). The composition comprises an extract of Melothria heterophylla —1,2,4,6-tetra-O-galloyl-beta-d-glucopyranose—at 0.0001–2.0%, wherein the extract of Melothria heterophylla is prepared by: a) extracting Melothria heterophylla with a solution containing 40–95% ethanol at 70–85°C; b) concentrating the extract at 50°C or less under reduced pressure; c) fractioning the concentrate with n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and water-saturated butanol; and d) subjecting the ethyl acetate fraction to a liquid chromatography media using 40–100% of methanol as a mobile phase to obtain an ethanol extract containing an effective 1,2,4,6-tetra-O-galloyl-beta-d-glucopyranose ingredient.

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