The cosmetics industry grows with the advancement of the society and culture. The cosmetic products must have safety, efficacy, stability and user convenience. In Korea, functional cosmetic fields are growing after cosmetic law was separated from phar...
The cosmetics industry grows with the advancement of the society and culture. The cosmetic products must have safety, efficacy, stability and user convenience. In Korea, functional cosmetic fields are growing after cosmetic law was separated from pharmaceutical affairs law at June, 2000. Sunscreen, whitening and anti-wrinkle effects are three categories in functional cosmetic law. Though not included in functional cosmetics, anti-hair loss and hair growth products are also important in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. Recently the regulation against animal experiments is claimed in Europe and many in vitro methods are used and developed. In vitro evaluation methods for whitening, anti-wrinkle and hair growth ingredients are introduced in this paper. Collagen and MMP-1 are well known biological targets for evaluation of anti-wrinkle ingredients. For the whitening effect, the activity of purified tyrosinase and other melanogenic enzymes are tested, thereafter employing melanocyte cultures, cytotoxicity and effects on melanin synthesis should be assayed. In vitro dermal papillar cell culture and hair organ culture are generally used for the screening of hair growth ingredients. Co-culture systems and reconstructed skin seem to be reliable methods to screen the capability of new agents compared to monolayer cell culture system. But all these evaluation methods have limits, and methods which have higher relationships with human should be developed continuously with reliable biomarkers.