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Background: The marine environment is a unique source of bioactive natural products, of which Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt is an important brown algae distributed in Jeju Island, Korea. S. muticum is a traditional Korean food stuff and has pharmacological functions including anti-inflammatory effects. However, the active ingredients from S. muticum have not been characterized. Methods: Bioguided fractionation of the ethanolic extract of S. muticum, collected from Jeju island, led to the isolation of a norisoprenoid. Its structure was determined by analysis of the spectroscopic data. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity and mechanisms of action of this compound were examined using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells through ELISA assays and Western blot analysis. Results: Apo-9′-fucoxanthinone, belonging to the norisoprenoid family were identified. Apo-9′-fucoxanthinone effectively suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production. This compound also exerted their anti-inflammatory actions by down-regulating of NF-κB activation via suppression of IκB-α in macrophages. Conclusions: This is the first report describing effective anti-inflammatory activity for apo-9′-fucoxanthinone′-fucoxanthnone isolated from S. muticum. Apo-9′-fucoxanthinone may be a good candidate for delaying the progression of human inflammatory diseases and warrants further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify new active cosmetics ingredients of natural origin, we screened 299 parts of 263 plant species collected from Jeju Island, the southernmost island of the Korean Peninsula. Plant parts were investigated for their elastase and tyrosinase inhibitory activity for the purpose of identifying anti-aging and skin-whitening ingredients with the potential for use as raw materials in cosmetics. In the anti-elastase inhibition assay, 3 extracts, including Aesculus turbinata, Taxillus yadoriki, and Cornus walteri, showed high inhibitory activity (inhibition concentration (IC)50<50 μg/mL). The IC50 of A. turbinata and T. yadoriki was 43.1 μg/mL and 36.4 μg/mL, respectively; C. walteri showed the highest elastase inhibition activity (IC50= 26.1 μg/mL). In the tyrosinase inhibition assay, 4 extracts, including C. walteri (139.2 μg/mL), Maackia fauriei (149.3 μg/mL), Toxicodendron succedaneum (142.3 μg/mL), and Sophora flavescens (41.6 μg/mL), showed significantly greater tyrosinase inhibition activity than the positive controls Distylium racemosum (145.9 μg/mL) and arbutin (180.3 μg/mL). However, they showed lower activity compared to the positive controls Morus alba (11.9 μg/mL) and Morus bombycis (22 μg/mL). These results suggest that medicinal plants possessing several biological activities may be potent inhibitors of the processes involved in pigmentation increases and aging. Further investigations will focus on in vivo assays and the chemical identification of the major active components responsible for anti-aging and whitening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]