Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Enhancement of Human Cheek Skin Texture by Acacia Nilotica Bark Extract Cream

Atif Ali , Naveed Akhtar, Haji Muhammad S Khan

Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Alternative Medicine, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan;

For correspondence:- Atif Ali Email: ajmaline2000@gmail.com

Received: 18 June 2012 Accepted: 25 April 2013 Published: 12 June 2013

Citation: Ali A, Akhtar N, Khan HM. Enhancement of Human Cheek Skin Texture by Acacia Nilotica Bark Extract Cream. Trop J Pharm Res 2013; 12(3):323-327 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v12i3.8

© 2013 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: To evaluate the effect of a topical application of a cream formulation containing extract of Acacia nilotica bark extract on human cheek skin texture.

Methods: A cream containing 3 % concentrated extract of Acacia nilotica bark was developed by entrapping the extract in the internal aqueous phase of the cream having strong antioxidant activity. A similar cream but without the extract was also prepared. Each of the formulations was applied to the cheeks of 11 human volunteers for a period of three months. Both cream formulations were assessed, using Visioscan VC 98, for various parameters including texture parameters (energy, contrast and variance) as well as for skin roughness (Ser), skin scaliness (SEsc), skin smoothness (SEsm) and skin wrinkles (Sew).

Results: Unlike the cream base, the extract cream exhibited steady, significant improvement in skin parameters over the 3-month period of application. Images showed visible improvement of the overall skin appearance and reduction of fine lines by the extract cream. Furthermore, skin texture (variance and contrast) and SELS (SEr, SEsc, SEsm and SEw) parameters showed significant decline (p < 0.05) and the texture parameter of energy showed significant increase (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the cream containing 3 % Acacia nilotica bark extract possesses anti-aging effect and improves skin surface appearance.

Keywords: Acacia nilotica, Cream, Visioscan VC 98, Skin texture, Anti-aging