Researchers out of Mae Fah Luang University and Walailak University, Thailand, have a new passion for passion fruit: sun protection. A new paper published in the Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences describes how extracts from sustainbly sourced passion fruit seeds were incorporated into two makeup forms and assessed in vitro for sun protection effects.
Specifically, a liquid foundation and concealer mousse were formulated with pigments both without the extract and with the extract at increasing levels of 0.1% and 0.3%. Results indicated the natural passion fruit seed extract, enriched with beneficial phenolics, increased the UVB protection of both formulas.
Interestingly, incorporation of the passion fruit seed extract significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced UVB protective efficacy of the concealer mousse vs. the liquid foundation. Moreover, a synergistic 7.34% increase with the pigments in the mousse was observed over the foundation.
According to the authors, passion fruit seed has been widely used due to its potent antioxidant activity and UV protection efficacy; with antioxidant activity comparable to ascorbic acid, and sun protection activity comparable to benzophenone-3, octylmethoxycinnamate and ferulic acid. Further, its sun protection properties are supported by its quercetin and rosmarinic acid content.
