Norartocarpetin from a folk medicine Artocarpus communis plays a melanogenesis inhibitor without cytotoxicity in B16F10 cell and skin irritation in mice

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Many natural products used in preventive medicine have also been developed as cosmeceutical ingredients in skin care products, such as<jats:italic>Scutellaria baicalensis</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>Gardenia jasminoides</jats:italic>. Norartocarpetin is one of the antioxidant and antityrosinase activity compound in<jats:italic>Artocarpus communis</jats:italic>; however, the cytotoxicity, skin irritation and antimelanogenesis mechanisms of norartocarpetin have not been investigated yet.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>In the present study, cell viability<jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic>and skin irritation<jats:italic>in vivo</jats:italic>are used to determine the safety of norartocarpetin. The melanogenesis inhibition of norartocarpetin was determined by cellular melanin content and tyrosinase in B16F10 melanoma cell. Moreover, we examined the related-melanogenesis protein by western blot analysis for elucidating the antimelanogenesis mechanism of norartocarpin.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The result of the present study demonstrated that norartocarpetin not only present non-cytotoxic in B16F10 and human fibroblast cells but also non-skin irritation in mice. Moreover, our result also first found that norartocarpetin downregulated phospho-cAMP response element-binding (phospho-CREB) and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) expression, which in turn decreased both synthesis of tyrosinases (TRP-1 and TRP-2) and cellular melanin content. This process is dependent on norartocarpetin phosphorylation by mitogen-activated protein kinases such as phospho-JNK and phospho-p38, and it results in decreased melanogenesis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>The present study suggests that norartocarpetin could be used as a whitening agent in medicine and/or cosmetic industry and need further clinical study.</jats:p></jats:sec>