In recent years, more and more people are focusing on skincare. In addition to strict sun protection, good antioxidant skin care is equally important for maintaining good skin condition. Among the many antioxidant and whitening ingredients, ferulic acid is an overlooked super antioxidant and free radical scavenger. Recently, a friend asked about this ingredient, so here's a detailed chat about it.
Ferulic acid is a phenolic acid widely present in the plant kingdom. It was first isolated from Ferula foetida regei in 1866 by the German Hlasweta.H, so it was named ferulic acid. Later, ferulic acid was extracted from the seeds and leaves of various plants. Research shows that ferulic acid is one of the active ingredients in many traditional Chinese medicines such as asafoetida, Ligusticum chuanxiong, angelica root, cohosh, and horsetail. It is one of the main indicators to measure the quality of these medicinal materials.
Ferulic acid is available in cis and trans forms. The cis form is a yellow oily substance, while the trans form is an oblique needle crystal, white or slightly yellow, and generally exists in the trans form in nature. The trans structure is mainly used in cosmetics. Ferulic acid has a wide range of functions and is widely used in medicine, food, beauty and skin care products and other industries. Let’s focus here on its role in skin care.
Rice Bran Rich in Ferulic Acid
Ferulic acid can enter the human body through transdermal absorption, and the permeability coefficient is positively related to the concentration. This allows ferulic acid to exert its skin care effect just by applying it. The skin care effects of ferulic acid are mainly reflected in four aspects: 1. Anti-oxidation; 2. Sun protection; 3. Whitening; 4. Anti-inflammatory.
When the skin is stimulated by ultraviolet rays, a large number of free radicals will be produced; the human body will also produce a large number of free radicals during its own metabolism. Free radicals attack normal cells and damage body tissues. If not removed in time, it will lead to skin aging, sagging, pigmentation, spots, and roughness.
Ferulic acid has strong antioxidant properties and can effectively scavenge various free radicals such as hydrogen peroxide, superoxide free radicals, hydroxyl free radicals, etc. It is a natural free radical scavenger and can also inhibit the formation of lipid peroxide MDA. It is generated to remove excess reactive oxygen species in the body and inhibit oxidative stress.
After years of popular science, I believe most friends are aware of the damage that ultraviolet rays can do to the skin. Ferulic acid absorbs ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet absorption spectrum of trans-ferulic acid in ethanol solution is as follows:
Trans-ferulic acid UV spectrum picture
Ferulic acid, with its maximum UV absorption peaks at 236 nm and 322 nm, can prevent or reduce the damage to skin caused by ultraviolet rays in this wavelength range. Ferulic acid can be used as a natural sunscreen. Used in conjunction with traditional sunscreen, it can provide double protection and minimize the damage of ultraviolet rays to the skin.
The production and deposition of melanin is the most fundamental cause of skin darkening, among which tyrosinase is the key enzyme in the formation of melanin. The structure of ferulic acid is similar to that of tyrosinase and levodopa, the natural substrate of tyrosinase. It can competitively inhibit the activity of tyrosinase and reduce the production of melanin, thereby achieving whitening and lightening of spots. Effect.
A large number of animal experiments have confirmed that ferulic acid has anti-inflammatory effects. Some sensitive, fragile, and damaged skins are often accompanied by inflammation. The anti-inflammatory effect of ferulic acid has a certain improvement effect on this type of skin.
Skin Care Products
Ferulic acid has excellent skin care effects, but it is very difficult to formulate ferulic acid into skin care products. Ferulic acid is very stable in the form of solid powder. However, in aqueous solution, it is easily affected by light, pH value, and temperature and decomposes, losing activity.
Experiments show that when exposed to sunlight, the content of ferulic acid will drop sharply within three days, and sunlight has a greater impact on the stability of ferulic acid. Therefore, products containing ferulic acid should be packaged in dark colors or protected from light, and should not be stored in places exposed to sunlight.
The pH value also has a great influence on the stability of ferulic acid: under low pH conditions, the stability of ferulic acid is relatively good and the degradation rate is slow; under high pH conditions, the degradation of ferulic acid is significantly accelerated, and Colored products are produced, causing the product to change color and taste.
Temperature also affects the stability of ferulic acid. Experiments show that as the temperature increases, the degradation rate of ferulic acid increases significantly. Therefore, products containing ferulic acid should be stored at low temperatures as much as possible. Especially in summer, it is best to keep it in the refrigerator.
In summary, ferulic acid has excellent antioxidant and free radical scavenging effects, and has certain skin care effects in terms of whitening, sun protection, and anti-inflammatory. However, ferulic acid has poor stability, difficult formulation, and is not widely used. When using products containing ferulic acid, avoid light and store at low temperatures, and use them as soon as possible after opening.
2021
Aug. 27,
2021
Sep. 02,
