Introduction of Arbutin

When it comes to whitening ingredients, the first reaction of many girls will be vitamin C. After all, from small to large, the function of vitamin C whitening does not know how many times it has been Amway.
But in fact, it is not only vitamin C that can play a role in skin whitening, such as "arbutin", it is often used as a whitening weapon in various whitening skin care products.

What is arbutin?
Arbutin (arbutin), also known as arbutin, arbutin, arbutin, arbutin or myricin, is a perennial evergreen shrub plant derived from the arbutus family of the azalea family.
Later, arbutin can also be extracted from fruits and plants such as pear, small mountain pear and saxifrage. Of course, in addition to being extracted from plants, arbutin can also be synthesized by chemical synthesis.

Arbutin can effectively inhibit the biological tyrosinase activity in the skin, block the formation of melanin, reduce skin pigmentation, and remove stains and freckles. It is currently the main raw material used in whitening cosmetics at home and abroad.
It is widely used in high-end whitening cosmetics. Among many whitening players, the effect of arbutin is very significant.

Of course, there are many kinds of arbutin, among which α-arbutin and β-arbutin belong to the whitening and blemish anti-oxidant effect. Although β-arbutin can achieve whitening effect, but its effective concentration is 3%, the whitening effect is not obvious and it is not very safe.
Alpha-arbutin can repair skin damage caused by ultraviolet rays, recall the skin's transparency, and will not be decomposed by β-glucosidase on the surface of the skin. Enzyme activity is a whitening ingredient in high-end skin care products.

What are the effects of arbutin?
1. Whitening and depigmentation
Tyrosine is the raw material for the formation of melanin. Tyrosinase is the main rate-limiting enzyme for the conversion of tyrosine to melanin. Its activity determines the amount of melanin formed. That is, the higher the tyrosinase activity in the body, the more the content, the easier it is to form melanin.
Arbutin can produce competitive and reversible inhibition of tyrosinase, which can inhibit the production of melanin and achieve the effects of whitening, skin lightening and freckle removal

2. Sunscreen
Arbutin also has the effect of absorbing ultraviolet rays. Some researchers conducted a special test on arbutin-added sunscreen products and found that arbutin showed a certain ultraviolet absorption capacity.
In addition, after being verified by many scientific research experiments, arbutin has also shown a certain effect in anti-inflammatory, bacteriostatic, antitussive, antiasthmatic, and antioxidant.
Use of skin care products with added arbutin, the effect is still not obvious, the reason may be here. Some studies have pointed out that if you want to achieve a better skin care effect, the amount of arbutin should be 3%. If it is less than this amount, the inhibitory effect on the catalytic activity of tyrosinase in the skin is weaker and the whitening effect It will not be obvious.

About the safety of arbutin
Arbutin has a good effect on whitening and freckle removal and has high safety. It has been gradually used by world cosmetics companies, but in view of the fact that arbutin can be converted into hydroquinone under certain circumstances (it is carcinogenic, it is banned internationally) Added in beauty products), so the stability of arbutin has attracted the attention of a large number of researchers. However, under normal circumstances, skin care products produced by regular merchants can still ensure the stability and safety of arbutin components, girls should not be too worried.
Should arbutin be used at night?
Many people think that arbutin is photosensitive and can only be used at night. In fact, only β-arbutin is photosensitive, and it will be photosensitive at high concentrations. At present, the upper limit of arbutin added to skin care products is about 7%. This concentration limit does not produce photosensitivity. It can also be used during the day. In fact, some sunscreen products will add α-arbutin as an antioxidant.