Research

Thesis title: "Herbal antioxidants in dermal products: formulation, testing platforms for skin permeation and biological effects"

Thesis outline: The ethnomedical plant Panax ginseng and its root extract, mostly in the form of Korean red ginseng (KRG) extract, is a known herbal antioxidant. Despite the fact that ginseng extract is marketed as cosmetic active in dermal preparations, little information exists on how successfully ginsenosides penetrate into the skin and what technological aspects might be suitable for this task.

Therefore, preparation and optimization of formulations already established by our research group will be conducted in order to see whether formulations such as hydrogels or fluid oil-in-water nanoemulsions containing KRG extract are suitable for dermal application. Cell viability tests will be performed to achieve information about the effect of KRG in such formulations on human skin cells in vitro. In addition, the potential of the antioxidative multi-compound extract and the new vehicles for sensitive applications will be investigated such as wound healing and as additive in dermal products for photoprotection. Since ginseng may possess potential benefits in wound healing applications, scratch assays will be performed. We will also execute release studies in order to explore the skin penetration potential of KRG extract and the ginsenosides. Experiments will be conducted using synthetic membranes and porcine ear skin for comparison.

If external funding is obtained in due time, we plan to investigate the effect of KRG extract in different vehicles on the ceramide profile of the stratum corneum. A study on human volunteers would serve to investigate effects on skin physiology (transepidermal water loss, SC hydration and natural moisturizing factor) by means of confocal Raman spectroscopy

Supervisor & Co-Mentors: Lea-Ann Dailey, Victoria Klang and Ammar Tahir

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