• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.3017-3021
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• 2013

Coumaroyl dipeptide amide, Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$, was prepared successfully using the solid-phase method, and its efficacy as a skin whitening agent was studied. Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ was prepared with Rink-amide resin, and 96.354% of purity was obtained. Using MTT assay and LDH release assay, we found that it exhibited very low cytotoxicity. And, we found that Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ inhibited tyrosinase activity dose-dependently and showed superior tyrosinase inhibitory activity to well-known whitening agent, arbutin. $IC_{50}$ value of Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ was 182.4 ${\mu}M$, and $IC_{50}$ value of arbutin was 384.6 ${\mu}M$. Also, in measurement of melanin contents using B16F1 melanoma cell lines, Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ reduced melanin production induced by ${\alpha}$-MSH statistically significant, and showed superior melanin inhibitory activity to p-coumaric acid or arbutin. In addition, Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ reduced MC1R mRNA expression level. Thus, we concluded that MC1R pathway is the significant pathway of Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$, and Coumaric acid-LG-$NH_2$ has great potential to be used as novel whitening agents.