Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

The use of plants as a source of active ingredients for health care was a common practice in all the passed civilizations, and still plant derived products have been extensively used for many types of therapeutic applications. It has been evaluated that in the last 20 years around 40% of the newly developed compounds or extracts for human health care have been natural products or derived from products of plant origin. Skin care research is constantly looking for new plant ingredients, which can be guaranteed for quality and safety to final consumers, as these need to be utilized in unregulated quantities. Unfortunately, several plant derived products can be used limitedly because it contains potential allergenic compounds, and may be subjected to environmental contaminations, such as pollution, pesticides or agrochemical residues. To bypass these limitations, plant tissue culture techniques can provide alternative solutions for producing valuable metabolites with skin care applications. These systems allow to cultivate plant cells or tissues in sterile conditions, totally independent from geographical and climatic factors, and with no risk of biological nor chemical contamination. Starting from different plant species and adopting new biotechnological approaches, we developed different types of tissue cultures, including cell, hairy root and somatic embryo suspension cultures, and used them as sources of active ingredients for skin care applications. The obtained ingredients, tested on skin cell cultures in vitro and on human volunteers in vivo, showed a wide range of cosmetic and dermatological activities, ranging from UV protection, anti-inflammation, hydration to anti-ageing.

Biography

Email: fabioapone@vitalabactive.com