Tyrosinase inhibitory constituents of Morus bombycis cortex

Tyrosinase is one of the important enzymes in the mammalian melanin synthesis. In the process of melanin synthesis, tyrosine is oxidized to DOPA (3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine), and DOPA is further oxidized to dopaquinone. Tyrosinase is an enzyme catalyzing this oxidation of tyrosine, so chemicals that inhibit the activity of tyrosinase can be used as skin whitening agents. In this study, we isolated five constituents from the 80% MeOH extract of Morus bombycis cortex by bioactivity-guided fractionation. We performed mushroom tyrosinase inhibition assay. As a result, 7,2′,4′-trihydroxyflavanone (1), 2′,4′,2,4,-tetrahydroxychalcone (2), and oxyresveratrol (3) showed the more potent inhibitory effect compared to kojic acid, a well-known skin whitening agent with antityrosinase effect. Moracinoside M (4) and moracin M-3′-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5) also showed the moderate tyrosinase inhibitory activities.