Whitening skin care market has been growing fast since the 1970s in Asia, but in more recent years lightening skin care products has been recognized as an anti-ageing treatment as a Global trend.
According to Sarah Gibson, exhibition manager at In-Cosmetics Asia – “Whitening skin care remains a controversial topic, given the active ingredients historically used.”
“However, Asian consumers are becoming better educated, demanding hard facts about lightening skin care products and proof that these products work, hence the need for manufacturers to reinforce the efficacy aspect as well as providing scientific evidence” – Sarah Gibson said.
Ingredients of whitening skin care products comes from many sources but most of the skin whiteners are high in toxicity, low in stability and poor in skin penetration therefore, formulators are searching for alternatives to the existing lightening skin care products, explained the researchers led by F Sharififar from the Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman.
They mainly focus their attention on extracts from plants traditionally used in medicine which shows the skin whitening potential but the scientists also emphasize the need of further study to look into the cytotoxicity of the extracts before starting more advanced tests.
According to the newest study conducted by Taiwanese scientists and published in the Journals LWT – Food Science and Technology the Asian plant extract called Osmanthus Fragrans shows potential for inhibiting the action of the enzyme tyrosinase which is involved in the synthesis of melanin.
“We have confirmed in current study that the Osmanthus Fragrans Extract contained substantial amounts of total phenolic compounds and flavonoids, which not only acted as tyrosinase inhibitors but also provided antioxidant activity” – said the researchers.
“Our findings support that Osmanthus Fragrans Extract is a potential natural, functional antioxidant food flavour additive. Additionally, because OFE inhibits melanin formation, it appears to have potential use as an anti-browning food additive, in whitening skin care cosmetics, or as a new drug for treating melanoma,” they added.
It’s good news that there is an increased movement towards natural and organic methods to influence the production of whitening skin care products and surely we will appreciate the possibility to be able to eat what we’ll put on our skin.
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Some people are born with naturally pale skin tone, while others are born with darker skin colour. Of course there is nothing wrong with having darker skin texture, but number of women and men still hope to have that light complexion that many of their friends have. 
