Abstract
The possible synergistic effect between the aqueous extract of Chrysanthemum morifolium ( Jú Huā) (AECM) and the peptide mixture (PM) containing soy peptide and collagen peptide was investigated in an ultraviolet (UV) irradiation-induced skin damage mouse model. The irradiated mice were treated with the PM or PM + AECM (containing PM and AECM), respectively. Both PM and PM + AECM groups displayed an apparent photoprotective effect on the UV-irradiated skin damage of mice. Histological evaluation demonstrated that the epidermal hyperplasia and melanocytes in the basal epidermal layer of the UV-irradiated skin in mice decreased when treated with either PM or PM + AECM. Further study showed that soy peptide, collagen peptide, and AECM also inhibited the activities of mushroom tyrosinase with IC50 values of 82.3, 28.2, and 1.6 μg/ml, respectively. Additionally, PM + AECM reduced melanogenesis by 46.2% at the concentration of 10 mg/ml in B16 mouse melanoma cells. Meanwhile, the UV-induced increase of antioxidative indicators, including glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA), was reduced significantly after treatment with 1.83 g/kg/dbw of PM + AECM. This evidence supported the synergistic antioxidative effect of AECM with PM. These results demonstrated that oral intake of PM and AECM had synergistic antimelanogenic and antioxidative effects in UV-irradiated mice.