Background: As the human body ages, it is exposed to various diseases; in particular, oxidative stress is the main factor that accelerates the occurrence of disease. Recently, as the interest in aging inhibition has increased, interest in natural plant-derived substances with excellent antioxidant properties has also increased.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to use ferulic acid for functional cosmetics as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent. Ferulic acid has various pharmacological effects on antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and it consists of phenolic hydroxyl groups (-OH), double bonds, and carboxyl groups (-COOH).
Methods: To investigate the effect of ferulic acid on cytotoxicity, cell viability was measured using an 3-(4,5-dimethyliazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay. In addition, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was performed to measure antioxidant activity in ferulic acid itself, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) was utilized to measure antioxidant activity in RAW 264.7 cells. The production of nitric oxide (NO) and histamine release were investigated to observe and measure the anti-inflammatory activity, respectively.
Results: The safety of ferulic acid cytotoxicity was confirmed. At concentrations of 25, 50, and 100 μg/ml of ferulic acid, the DPPH radical exhibited high concentration-dependent activity of free radical scavenging. Ferulic acid suppressed ROS production in a concentration-dependent manner and exhibited an antioxidant activity of 76% at the highest concentration of 100 μg/ml. The addition of 25, 50, and 100 μg/ml ferulic acid to RAW 264.7 macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide resulted in NO production inhibition in a concentration-dependent manner, with a strong inhibition rate of 74% at 100 μg/ml. In addition, as a result of measuring the histamine inhibitory effect induced by melitin, ferulic acid was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner.
Conclusion: These results suggest that ferulic acid can be effectively used as a functional substance with antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities in the development of cosmetic materials.

Keywords: antioxidants, ferulic acid, inflammation, phenolic, phenylpropanoid

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