Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anti-Aging Effects of Hippophae rhamnoides Emulsion on Human Skin

Barkat Ali Khan¹ , Naveed Akhtar¹, Valdir A Braga²

¹Departmentof Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Alternative Medicine, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan; ²Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology, Federal University of Paraiba, JoÃ£o Pessoa, Brazil.

For correspondence:- Barkat Khan Email: barki.gold@gmail.com Tel:+00923339732578

Received: 6 July 2011 Accepted: 4 October 2012 Published: 13 December 2012

Citation: Khan BA, Akhtar N, Braga VA. Anti-Aging Effects of Hippophae rhamnoides Emulsion on Human Skin. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(6):955-962 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i6.12

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of topically applied water-in-oil (w/o) emulsion of Hippophae rhamnoides using standard R cutometer parameters.

Methods: A w/o emulsion of 1 % hydro-alcoholic extract of H. rhamnoides (formulation) and placebo control (base) were used in the study. Eleven healthy male volunteers with a mean age of 24.5 years were selected after obtaining informed consent. The subjects were assigned to blindly use either the formulation or the base for 7 consecutive weeks. The skin mechanical parameters determined with a cutometer, were R0 (first maximum amplitude), R2 (gross-elasticity), R6 (viscoelasticity), R7 (biological elasticity) and R8 (total recovery). In addition, the antioxidant activity of the formulation was evaluated by 1, 1-diphenil-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method.

Results: Topical application of 1 % organic extract emulsion of H. rhamnoides improved most of the biomechanical parameters evaluated when compared to the base group (p < 0.05). However, skin extensibility and firmness of the active formulation- and base-treated groups (R0) were not different (p < 0.01). Of note, a significant correlation between the active formulation and the improvement of the skin mechanical parameters was observed. The active formulation was found to be superior than the placebo control.

Conclusion: The topical antioxidant emulsion of H. rhamnoides significantly improved skin biomechanical parameters after 7 weeks of treatment. The data obtained suggest that H. rhamnoides could be an alternative pharmacological tool for treating age-related loss of skin elasticity.

Keywords: Skin elasticity, Skin aging, Emulsion, Cutometer, Hippophae rhamnoides