Lavender essential oil nanoemulsion gel as skin lightener: green formulation, full characterization, anti-melanogenesis effect, and in-vitro/in-vivo safety profile assessment

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Food Health Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

3 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

4 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

5 Student Research Committee, Faculty of Pharmacy, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

6 Molecular Medicine Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

7 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

8 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran

10.22038/nmj.2025.80954.2004

Abstract

Objective(s): In this study, to improve anti-melanogenesis properties, the green method based on an ultrasonic approach was utilized to prepare lavender essential oil (LEO) nanoemulgel.
Material and Methods: Nano-emulsion green preparation, physico-chemical characterization, inspection morphology, animal safety study, cellar toxicity and anti-pigmentation test were performed.
Results: The obtained results showed that with a decline in HLB value (Hydrophilic–lipophilic balance), the mean particle size declined from 157.600±3.798 to 85.566± 2.227 nm (P< 0.05). The evaluations performed with the accelerated stability test (freeze-thaw cycle) showed stability for nanoemulgel. Other factors, such as pH, spreadability, and, viscosity were also measured. In vitro cytotoxicity studies for the revealed LEO-nanoemulsion, on the HFF normal cell line showed less toxicity (73%) than pure LEO. Moreover, LEO-nanoemulsion had a higher cytotoxic impact on B16F10 melanoma cancer cells than pure LEO. The inhibitory activity of this LEO-nanoemulsion was evaluated in melanin content, which indicated that melanin synthesis is more inhibited than LEO. Furthermore, the evaluation of the inhibitory activity presented that the inhibition of L-dopa auto oxidation (87.33± 2.45%) is better than that of LEO (74.22± 3.26%) at a concentration of 5000 µg/ml. It should be noted that no skin irritation was observed with the histo-pathological examination on Wistar rat and the dermal irritation study for the LEO-nanoemulgel.
Conclusion: The results of the present study can be very useful for the introduction and local administration of LEO nanoemulgel for the management of hyperpigmentation conditions.

Keywords

References

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Available Online from 03 February 2025

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