• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.7-22
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• 1997

Inhibitory effects of 200 medicinal plants on elastase activity were screened. Among the 200 plants, six plant extracts exhibited more than 65% of inhibition on elastase activity by their total methanol extracts at 1, 000$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$ as a final concentration. For six active plants including Areca catechu, Cinnamonum cassia, Myristica frograns, Curcumma longa, Alponia katsumadai, and Dryopteris crassirrhizoma, the inhibitory effects of their comsituents were examined on the activity of human leukocyte elastase, hyaluronidase and lipid peroxidation. In lipid peroxidation assay using TBA method, three of the 6 plants including Curcumma longa, Areca Catechu and Alponia katsumadai exhibited more than 70% of inhibition at the concentration of 1, 000$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$, but only one plant, Areca Ctechu showed high inhibitory effect on hyaluronidase activity. The results suggest that medicinal plants showing several biological activities may be potent inhibitors of anti-aging process on skin and that might be useful for application in cosmetics.