• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1061-1067
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• 2018

The anti-melanogenic effects of the extract of Angelica tenuissima (AT) root and the extract of AT root fermented by Aspergillus oryzae (FAT) were investigated. These effects were determined by measuring the inhibitory activity of AT and FAT on melanin production in B16F10 melanocytes and with in vitro tyrosinase activity assays. The AT extract inhibited melanin production at concentrations above $250{\mu}g/ml$, and this inhibitory effect was significantly enhanced by the fermentation process with A. oryzae. HPLC analysis resulted in the isolation of two active compounds from both the AT and FAT extracts. Their chemical structures were identified as decursin and Z-ligustilide through comparison with previously reported NMR data. The decursin and Z-ligustilide contents were increased in the FAT extract and could be responsible for its enhanced inhibitory effects on melanin production and tyrosinase activity compared with that of the AT extract.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.602-607
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• 2017

Background: Panax ginseng is a traditional herb used for medicinal purposes in eastern Asia. P. ginseng contains various ginsenosides with pharmacological effects. In this study, floralginsenoside A (FGA), ginsenoside Rd (GRD), and ginsenoside Re (GRE) were purified from P. ginseng berry. Methods: Chemical structures of FGA, GRD, and GRE were determined based on spectroscopic methods, including fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy, ID-nuclear magnetic resonance, and infrared spectroscopy. Inhibitory activities of these compounds on melanogenesis were studied by measuring the expression of protein and melanin content in the melan-a cell line. This inhibitory activity was confirmed by observing pigmentation and tyrosinase activities of zebrafish. Results: GRD, GRE, and FGA were not cytotoxic at concentrations less than $20{\mu}M$, $80{\mu}M$, and $160{\mu}M$ in melan-a cells, respectively. GRD, GRE, and FGA inhibited melanin biosynthesis in melan-a cells by 15.2%, 22.9%, and 23.9% at $20{\mu}M$, $80{\mu}M$, and $160{\mu}M$, respectively. FGA was observed to display the most potent inhibitory effect. In addition, FGA decreased microphthalmia-associated transcription factor protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, FGA induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation level in melan-a cells. In addition, melanin pigment content and tyrosinase activity in zebrafish treated with FGA at $160{\mu}M$ were reduced. Conclusion: FGA showed the most potent inhibition of melanogenesis in both in vitro and in vivo studies. This study suggests that FGA purified from P. ginseng may be an effective melanogenesis inhibitor.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2006

Quantitative difference in five phenolic acids between white and red ginsengs was measured in this study. As the results, white ginseng has higher contents of cinnamic acid, quercetin and p-coumaric acid than red ginseng. Maltol was mainly included in red ginseng. These five compounds were recently reported to have tyrosinase inhibitory effects. These reports led us to investigate the de-pigmenting effect of ginseng products. In our examination of effect on tyrosinase activity, UV-protection and melanin production in melan-a cells, ethyl acetate traction of white ginseng extract and cinnamic acid showed potent de-pigmenting properties. The results indicated that white ginseng might be useful as skin whitening material and cinnamic acid proved to be one of active ingredient.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1089-1094
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• 1996

The in vivo effect of tyrosinase inhibitors in the melanogenesis of gold fish (jet black color) was evaluated by measuring surface color and observing melanin pigment. The fish was firstly cultivated in 0.9% NaCl solution for 1 week to induce melanogenesis, and then, it was transferred to each treatment group containing tyrosinase inhibitor. The fish was grouped into control. food additive group (addition of 5 mM glutathione, 5 mM cysteine, and 1 mM benzoic acid), microbial inhibitor group (addition of culture broth of Aspergillus oryzae in shiitake and glucose medium), and plant extract group (addition of the mixed extracts of green tea, beet, red chicory, and nameko). After 6 days, the fish was anesthetized by electric shock, and color of pectoral region, lateral region, and dorsal fin was measured. Hunter's L and b values of treated group were generally higher than those of control group, indicating that the tyrosinase inhibitors could inhibit the melanogenesis of the fish. Effect of plant extract was apparent, though relatively weak, not because it did not work in vivo, but because a sufficient amount of extract could not be added to fish globes. If a large amount of extract was added, fish gradually died due to a microbial contamination. Microscopic observation of melanin in lateral scale and dorsal fin showed that in the treated groups with tyrosinase inhibitors, the number of melanophore per unit area and the size of one melanophore decreased.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.131-144
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• 1997

The present study was carried out to investigate the processes of the ultrastructural differentiation and the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities of the developing rat retina. The results are as follows. The retina of fetal rat on the 13th day of gestation showed the early stage of differentiation. Briefly, there appeared dividing chromosomes, the plentiful free ribosomes, and the high ratio of nucleus to cytoplasm. The reaction products by AChE were localized at the membrane of endoplasmic reticulum and on the outer membrane of nucleus. Ultrastructures and AChE activities in the retina of the fetal rats on the 18th day of gestation were similar to those of the prior stages, except the appearence of rough endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. According to the ultrastructural observations, the rat retina was still in immature state at birth, but the pigment epithelial cells were fully differentiated, e. g. the increase of melanin granules, the development of mitochondria and Golgi apparatus. The AChE activity was weekly detected. The differentiated retinal layers and the outer segment of photoreceptor cells were observed on the 7th postnatal day. And the pigment epithelium appeared to be fully differentiated. On the 14th postnatal day, rat retina were completely differentiated. In other words, the rat retina was characterized by the prominent outer segments, phagocytosed residues in the pigment epithelium, and the localization of reaction products by AChE in the synapses. In conclusion, the differentiation of rat retina is charaterized by the changes of cell shape, the increase of retinal layers, and the alterations of AChE activities. It seems that rat retina is to be functional from 2 weeks of birth onward, coinciding with the eye opening of the juvenile rats.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.289-295
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• 1982

Streptomyces bobili (YS-40) isolated from soil was tested that it had drug resistance against penicillin, cephalosporin series antibiotics and other antibiotics in the previous paper. The treatment of Streptomyces bobili, (YS-40) with ethidium bromide (EtBr), acriflavine and sodium dodecyl sulfate. (SDS) resulted in the elimination of R-plasmid from the host strain. Minimum growth inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of Hg, Ag, penicillin-G, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline, streptomycin and kanamycin were found to be 15, 10, > 3, 000, > 100, > 1, 000, > 100, < 5 and < 5$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$ respectively. Among the curing agents, EtBr was proved to be the most powerful compound for the elimination of R-plasmid in the strain and the elimination rate with EtBr(10$\mu\textrm{g}$/$m\ell$) was about 98%. Optimal pH to. the elimination of R-plasmid was pH 7.0 and the R-plasmid in the cells incubated for 24 hrs was proved to be eliminated most effectively. Aerial mass color, soluble pigment formation and reverse side color were reported to be often the plasmid associated characteristics of the R-plasmid bearing bacteria. But these characteristics of the uncured and cured Streptomyces bobili, (YS-40) showed no changes in the most of the pigment formation media tested in this work.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1219-1224
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• 2008

The embryonic zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly becoming an important model organism for studies of early events in vertebrate development. Neural crest-derived pigment cell precursors of the embryonic zebrafish give rise to melanophores, xanthophores, and/or iridophores. Cell-signaling mechanisms related to the development of pigmentation and pigment pattern formation remain obscure. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with various signaling-related molecules - LiCl (an inositol-phosphatase inhibitor), forskolin (a protein kinase-A activator), a combination of LiCl/forskolin, and LiCl/heparin (an IP3 inhibitor) in order to identify the mechanisms involved in pigmentation. LiCl treatment resulted in ultrastructural and morphological alterations of melanophores. To identify the possible proteins responsible for this ultrastructural and morphological change, phosphorylation patterns in vitro and in vivo were analyzed. LiCl and LiCl/forskolin treatment elicited dramatic increases in the phosphorylation of a 55-kDa protein which was inhibited by heparin treatment. LiCl treatment also induced phosphorylation of a 55-kDa protein in melanophores purified from adult zebrafish. Collectively these results suggest that a LiCl-induced 55-kDa phosphoprotein plays a role in melanophore morphology and ultrastructure and ultimately effects gross pigmentation.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2022

In this paper, a method to directly calculate the major elements of skin color such as melanin and hemoglobin from the RGB signal of the camera is proposed. The main elements of skin color typically measure spectral reflectance using specific equipment, and reconfigure the values at some wavelengths of the measured light. The values calculated by this method include such things as melanin index and erythema index, and require special equipment such as a spectral reflectance measuring device or a multi-spectral camera. It is difficult to find a direct calculation method for such component elements from a general digital camera, and a method of indirectly calculating the concentration of melanin and hemoglobin using independent component analysis has been proposed. This method targets a region of a certain RGB image, extracts characteristic vectors of melanin and hemoglobin, and calculates the concentration in a manner similar to that of Principal Component Analysis. The disadvantage of this method is that it is difficult to directly calculate the pixel unit because a group of pixels in a certain area is used as an input, and since the extracted feature vector is implemented by an optimization method, it tends to be calculated with a different value each time it is executed. The final calculation is determined in the form of an image representing the components of melanin and hemoglobin by converting it back to the RGB coordinate system without using the feature vector itself. In order to improve the disadvantages of this method, the proposed method is to calculate the component values of melanin and hemoglobin in a feature space rather than an RGB coordinate system using a feature vector, and calculate the spectral reflectance corresponding to the skin color using a general digital camera. Methods and methods of calculating detailed components constituting skin pigments such as melanin, oxidized hemoglobin, deoxidized hemoglobin, and carotenoid using spectral reflectance. The proposed method does not require special equipment such as a spectral reflectance measuring device or a multi-spectral camera, and unlike the existing method, direct calculation of the pixel unit is possible, and the same characteristics can be obtained even in repeated execution. The standard diviation of density for melanin and hemoglobin of proposed method was 15% compared to conventional and therefore gives 6 times stable.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.213-216
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• 2002

Skin pigmentation, also known as complexion coloration, results from the biosynthesis of melanin within the melanocytes of the Stratum basalum and the subsequent transfer, translocation, and degradation of this pigment to, in, and by the neighboring keratinocytes respectively, Melanins are produced and retained in melanosomes synthesized in the cell body that are translocated along the dendrites using microtubules via motor proteins. Melanosomes are eventually captured and retained at the tips of dendrites by attachment to the peripherally localized actin. Melanosomes reaching the dendritic tips are transferred to keratinocytes, primarily via phagocytosis of released melanosomes by keratinocytes. Molecules responsible for cell/cell recognition and interaction that regulate transfer are being identified. Some of these putative mediators appear to be affected by ultraviolet radiation. After the keratinocytes receive melanosomes, the granules are distributed individually or as clusters in dark versus light skin respectively. These melanosomes are then aggregated over the nucleus for photoprotection ofkeratinocyte DNA and eventually degraded.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.86-91
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• 1997

Some natural polyhydroxy aromatic compounds have inhibitory activity against tyrosinase, key enzyme for formation of melanin pigment. We examined the structure-activity relationship of the natural polyhydrowy aromatic compounds and synthesized a number of new derivetives through various methods. Skin lightening effects of these compounds were examined through inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase and inhibitory of melanogenesis on B-16 melanoma cells. These new compounds showed strong inhibitory activity against tyrosinase. Good lightening effects sue to inhibition of melanogenesis were observed from several resorcinol and pyrogallol derivatives. In toxicological tests such as skin primary irritation and sensitization, the above compounds were sufficiently safe for cosmetic use.