Scenedesmus obliquus: A Potential Natural Source for Cosmetic Industry

Abstract

Skin is the largest organ of our body and it protects interior organsagainst several environmental factors. Hyperpigmentation problem occurs as aresult of abnormal melanin accumulation in the skin. A considerable amount ofworld’s population uses skin whitening products. It is known that various algaederivedsecondary metabolites play an important role in skin problems.Therefore, the tyrosinase inhibitory activities of S. obliquus ethanol and waterextracts were evaluated in the present study. Tyrosinase activity was determinedspectrophotometrically at 492 nm. The ethanol extract showed the higherinhibitory activity on tyrosinase enzyme (IC50: 0.0270 g/mL) than water extract(IC50: 0.2882 g/mL). This result may have stemmed from the vanillic, ferulic acidand rutin components that were identified by RP-HPLC only in the ethanolextract.