Anti-tyrosinase and antioxidant activity of meroterpene bakuchiol from Psoralea corylifolia (L.).

Bakuchiol is gaining major interest for treatments against skin photoaging. The kinetics of mushroom tyrosinase inhibition by bakuchiol, by real-time oxygen sensing and UV-vis monitoring (475 nm), showed competitive inhibition with average K _i constant (µM, 30 °C, pH 6.8) of 6.71 ± 1.23 and 1.15 ± 0.34 for monophenolase and diphenolase reactions respectively, with respective IC ₅₀ 37.22 ± 5.18 and 6.91 ± 0.96 ∼ at 1 mM substrate, compared to kojic acid IC ₅₀ 34.02 ± 5.51 and 16.86 ± 3.28 μM. Fluorescence quenching showed a single binding mode with formation constant K _a 1.02 × 10 ⁶ M ^-1 . The antioxidant activity was studied by inhibited autoxidation of styrene and cumene (PhCl, 30 °C) affording inhibition constant k _inh  = 18.1 ± 6.6 (10 ⁴ M ^-1 s ^-1 , 30 °C) and of MeLin in Triton™ X-100 micelles giving k _inh  = 0.16 ± 0.03 (10 ⁴ M ^-1 s ^-1 , 37 °C). Stoichiometric factor was 1.9 ± 0.1. ReqEPR spectroscopy afforded the BDE(OH) as 81.7 ± 0.1 kcal/mol. Bakuchiol is a potent tyrosinase inhibitor with good antioxidant activity having major potential as natural food preservative against oxidation and food-browning.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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