Abstract
Demand for anti-aging cosmetics is increasing considerably. Until now, a great number of materials that are able to prevent human skin from aging (the anti-aging ingredients) have been sought by many researchers, however, few components were found to be useful in anti-aging cosmetics. Nowadays, the defensive functions in plants against oxidative stress from the outside have attracted considerable attention, therefore, we have aimed at applying new antioxidants in plants to the anti-aging cosmetic ingredients. Germinated sesame seeds were found to contain a strong natural antioxidant. As a result of purification and identification, it appeared that lignan glycosides were the main antioxidants in germinated sesame seeds, and we could succeed in discovering three new kinds of lignan glycosides. By evaluating the effectiveness of these compounds for anti-aging cosmetics, it was found that lignan glycosides showed scavenging activity on organic radicals, hydroxyl radical (ESR analysis), singlet oxygen, superoxide anion, and antioxidant activity against oxidation of squalene generated by UV irradiation and oxidation of linoleic acid induced by Fenton reaction. These results suggested that lignan glycosides in germinated sesame seeds were very useful as anti-aging cosmetic ingredients.
