Abstract
Herein, we investigated the active ingredients in wheat germ as natural materials for functional cosmetics. Wheat germ hydrothermal extracts were obtained with 20 %, 50 %, and 80 % ethanol and used for GC-MS active ingredient analysis and antioxidant efficacy, whitening, wrinkle improvement, and trans-2-nonenal reduction rate analyses. Chromaticity analysis showed a rapid decrease in yellowness (b*), which was believed to be attributed to the increased level of active substances having double bonds with increased ethanol content. GC-MS analysis identified high levels of hexadecanoic acid, 9, 12-octadecadienoic acid, and conjugated linoleic acid with increasing ethanol content. Also low levels of linoleic acid ethyl ester and linoelaidic acid were detected. In contrast, as the ethanol content decreased, the active ingredients of cyclotrisiloxane were detected. Antioxidant efficacy analysis showed an IC50 value of 2.16 for ascorbic acid, which was the control, and 3.37, 3.39, and 2.76 for wheat germ extract with 20 %, 50 %, and 80 % ethanol, respectively. All extracts displayed concentration-dependent antioxidant effects, although the effects were lower than that of ascorbic acid. Tyrosinase inhibition activity analysis showed that the extract with 80 % ethanol had the highest inhibition rate. In collagenase inhibition activity analysis, all extracts had a similar level of inhibitory activity compared with ascorbic acid. These effects are thought to be attributed to the active ingredients of cyclotrisiloxane detected in the extract. Additionally, trans-2-noneal removal analysis using GC-MS showed a high removal rate of 96.3 % in a wheat germ extract with 80 % ethanol.
Keywords
NA