Inhibitory Effects of Hydroquinone-α-glucoside on Melanin Synthesis

TL;DRAbstract

Inhibitory effects of hydroquinone-alpha-glucoside (HQ-alpha-G) on the melanogenesis were investigated and compared with those of arbutin. The levels of inhibitory effects of HQ-alpha-G and arbutin on the tyrosinase activity were nearly the same. Inhibitory effects of both compounds on the melanogenesis, were studied using cultured B16 melanoma cells, and HQ-alpha-G was also found to have a similar effect to that of arbutin without inhibiting cell growth. In this experiment, while HQ-alpha-G hardly inhibited cell growth at 1 mM, arbutin inhibit it significantly at the same concentration. From these results it is suggested that HQ-alpha-G as well as arbutin inhibited the melanogenesis by affecting tyrosinase rather than by killing melanocytes. Furthermore, the melanogenesis of guinea-pigs with brown hair was reduced to about 80% by applying them each compound. The great differences in toxicity to normal human keratinocyte were not recognized between these two glucosides. It is, therefor

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper