| | Category | BI | L07 | South African plants for skin hyperpigmentation disorders |
| | Abstract | The purpose of this project was to determine whether certain plant extract |
| | could inhibit tyrosinase production in the skin. I first prepared the extracts |
| | that were used in the experiments, dissolved them in dimethyl sulphoxide, |
| | and tested them against different concentrations of tyrosinase to see if |
| | they had any inhibitory effects. 70 µl of each extract dilution was |
| | combined with 30 µl of tyrosinase in triplicates in microtitre well plates. |
| | Kojic acid was used as a positive control in the experiment. Optical |
| | densities of the wells were then determined at 492 nm with the BIO-TEK |
| | PowerWave XS multi-well plate reader. The IC50 value was then |
| | determined by the use of MSTATC software. The best results for tyrosine |
| | testing went on to DOPA testing. |
| | |
| | DOPA testing allowed me to determine the IC50 values of each extract. |
| | The IC50 is a measure of the effectiveness of a compound in inhibiting |
| | biological or biochemical function. Then I went on to antioxidant testing. I |
| | also found the EC50 value through this process. By performing these |
| | experiments, I concluded that Greyia sutherlandi was the most active plant |
| | extract for inhibiting tyrosinase formation in the skin. |
| | Bibliography | http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/tyrosine- |
| | 000329.htmhttp://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic528.htm |