INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF NATURAL MEDICINES ON THE ENZYMES RELATED TO THESKIN

In this paper, we investigated the inhibitory effects of water extract s from sixty-six natural medicines on the enzymes related to the skin, which were tyrosinase, hyaluronidase and collagenase. To clarify the inhibitory components in water extracts, tannin quantity and the inhib itory activity of the water extracts after removal of phenolic compoun ds using polyclar AT, were measured. Twelve kinds of natural medicines were found to have tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Six of them showed that tannin, which contains sufficient amounts in extracts, might be major inhibitory compounds due to a significant decrease of inhibition by these samples after removal of phenolic compounds. The inhibitory compound of Aurantii fructus immaturus was thought phenolic compounds except tannin. The inhibitory compounds may include Armeniacae semen, Perillae folium and Persicae semen besides a phenolic compound. Twenty -seven species among the natural medicines studied showed inhibitory a ctivity on hyaluronidase. Phenolic compounds in these extracts except Artemisiae argyi folium, could not be candidates for hyaluronidase inh ibitors. Seven kinds of the natural medicines have inhibitory activity on collagenase. It was estimated that these inhibitory compounds were phenolic compounds. These results are to be expected for finding nove l compounds for skin disease or skin-care cosmetics.