Eleutherococcus senticosus (Acanthopanax senticosus), known as Siberian ginseng, is a kind of small woody shrub that belongs to the family Araliaceae. Ginseng is a popular herb that has been used in Chinese Medicine for over 2000 years.
Siberian Ginseng is made up of phenolic, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidin contents. It is rich in phlorizin ingredients.
ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES
Siberian Ginseng is used as a skin anti-aging agent due to its antioxidant property. The antioxidant activity determined was performed by the DPPH radical scavenging method. It has a protective effect against oxidative stress due to free radical scavenging ability, iron (II) chelating, and lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity.
Phlorizin, the active ingredient of Siberian Ginseng, protects the skin against UVB-induced skin damage by decreasing ROS overproduction. Therefore, it has beneficial effects on skin stem cells.
COLLAGEN ENHANCER
Topical applications of Siberian Ginseng have anti-aging effects on the skin. Phlorizin, a key component of Siberian Ginseng, affects the stem cell characteristics of keratinocytes by regulating extracellular matrix protein or transmembrane protein such as type IV collagen.
Type IV collagen is a target of miR135b and that miR135b suppression improved the microenvironment and increase the proliferative potential of basal cells. It disclosed the role of miR135b in epidermal keratinocytes and may provide a way to control stem cell fate in the skin.
Consequently, Siberian Ginseng can affect stem cell fate in the skin via inhibition of the miR135b pathway and increasing the synthesis of type IV collagen of the basement membrane. All these findings showed that topical application of Siberian Ginseng has antiaging effects on the skin through the miR135b-type IV collagen pathway. Thus, miR and extracellular matrix mediated pathways can be an important anti-aging strategy.
Moreover, Siberian Ginseng has inhibitory activities against MMPs induced by UVA irradiation in human keratinocyte cells (HaCaT), an enzyme responsible for collagen destruction.
Therefore, the anti-wrinkle effect of Siberian Ginseng involved the suppression of collagen degradation and increased collagen synthesis.