Platycodon grandiflorum extract: chemical composition and whitening, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects

Whitening cosmetics have a large market scale and broad development prospects, while whitening products of traditional Chinese medicine have always been a research hotspot. In this study, the whitening active extract of Platycodon grandiflorum (PGE) was isolated and purified for the first time, and the whitening activity mechanism and chemical composition of PGE were elucidated. A total of 45 components were identified via high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) analysis, including arbutin, syringin, chlorogenic acid, platycoside E, platycodin D₃, baicalin, platycodin D, and luteolin. The scavenging rates of PGE toward DPPH and ABTS free radicals were 98.03% and 84.30%, respectively. The inhibition rate of PGE toward tyrosinase was up to 97.71%. The PGE had significant anti-inflammatory effects on RAW264.7 macrophages stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and had significant inhibition effects on tyrosinase and melanin generation of B16F10 cells stimulated by α-MSH. The results showed that the PGE achieved a synergistic whitening effect by inhibiting the activation of oxygen free radicals on tyrosinase, antioxidation, anti-inflammatory effect, enzyme activity, and melanin generation. As a whitening agent extracted from natural plants, PGE has great potential in the research and development of plant whitening cosmetics, which lays a foundation for the further development and utilization of Platycodon grandiflorum resources and also provides a theoretical basis for the development of green and organic whitening cosmetics.