Actinidia chinensis extract for Skin and Body

Actinidia chinensis extract, commonly known as Chinese kiwifruit, is a China native fruit, which becomes increasingly popular due to its attractive nutritional, economic, and health benefits properties. It is a good source of polyphenols, vitamin C, triterpenoids, carbohydrates, amino acids, and minerals. These constituents render the A. Chinensis extract with a wide range of pharmacological properties including antitumor, anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, antioxidant, hypolipemic, antidiabetic, and cardiovascular protective activities, suggesting that it may possibly be valuable in the prevention and treatment of pathologies associated with oxidative stress, cancer, and aging.

• Antitumor Activity: A. Chinensis extract exhibited strong inhibition against tumor growth in various forms of human cancer cells. These cancer cells were hepatocellular carcinoma cells HepG2, Hep3B, SMMC7721, HCCLM3, HL-7702, MHCC97L, MHCC97H, Huh7, and SW480, pharyngeal carcinoma cell lines Fadu and HEP-2, lung cancer cells NCI-H460 and NCI-H1299, colon cancer cells HT-29, LoVo, gastric cancer cells SGC7901, MFC, BGC-823, and MKN-49P, as well as other cancer cells like A549, P-388, MCF-7, SK-OV-3, and HeLa. These reported antitumor activities are consistent with traditional usages such as colon cancer, esophagus cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, and gastric cancer.

• Antioxidant: A. Chinensis extract is a good source of bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties to various extents. The antioxidant capacities of kiwifruit are greatly attributed to polyphenols, flavonoids, unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin C.

• Anti-inflammatory: on the cellular level, polyphenols are mainly composed of p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and ferulic acid. Therefore, the anti-inflammatory potential of A. Chinensis seeds mainly depend on the synergetic effect of these polyphenols, and they may be used to prevent a variety of inflammation-related diseases.

• Anti-bacterial: All the extracts including skin, pulp, seeds, and stems showed bactericidal against Streptococcus pyogenes, S. faecalis, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumonia.

• Hypolipemic and Antidiabetic Activities: the seed oil of A. Chinensis when administered daily over 12 consecutive weeks significantly lowered bodyweight gain, inguinal fat tissue weight, and the accumulation of TG, HDL-C, TC, and LDL-C in the liver of the high-fat diet-induced obese C57BL/6 mice. The seed oil from A. Chinensis supplementation also improved insulin resistance and alleviated hyperglycemia by reducing HOMA-IR index and blood glucose in high-fat diet-induced obese mice.

• Cardiovascular Protective Effects: The polysaccharide of A. Chinensis can be potentially used in the treatment of heart disease.

• Hypnotic Effects: Oral administration of extracts from A. Chinensis decreased sleep latency and increased sleep duration in pentobarbital-treated mice.

• Collagen production and whitening effect on the skin: Actinidia chinensis extract promoted proliferation of human dermal fibroblasts, significantly stimulated ATP-synthesis, promoted mitochondrial activity and energy metabolism of HaCaT keratinocytes, and significantly increased collagen synthesis in dermal skin equivalents. It mainly contained B-type propelargonidins, procyanidins gallate, procyanidins, and prodelphinidins showed strong inhibition activity on tyrosinase, indicating that they can be used as whitening agents.

Actinidia chinensis extract is suitable for all skin types including sensitive skin and skin of colour, but do make sure to conduct a test patch to see if you are allergic to this extract.