Anti-tyrosinase agents for the prevention of browning and hyperpigmentation treatments: a comprehensive review

Browning of fruits and vegetables and hyperpigmentation of human skin are two undesirable phenomena. Tyrosinase is the main enzyme recognized as responsible for this enzymatic browning and melanogenesis in mammals. Due to this vital role of tyrosinase, focuses on its inhibitors discovered from all sources, including synthetic compounds, extracts and active ingredients of natural products, virtual screening and structure-based molecular docking would be helpful for screening and development of effective and safe antibrowning and antimelanogenic agents. For this purpose several sensitive methods including spectrophotometric, chromatographic, electrophoretic, radiometric and electrochemical assays have been applied and developed by researchers. In addition to identification of tyrosinase inhibitors from natural sources, many researchers have designed appropriate scaffold inspired by the structure of natural compounds and developed novel synthetic inhibitors, up to now. It is interesting that among different tested compounds, some of them such as kojic acid derivatives despite their depigmenting activities didn’t display tyrosinase inhibitory activitiy.

Keywords:

Inhibitors , Enzyme , Mushroom Tyrosinase , Antimelanogenic