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Planta Med 1999; 65(1): 019-022
DOI: 10.1055/s-1999-13955
Original Paper

Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

2-Hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde: A Potent Tyrosinase Inhibitor from African Medicinal Plants

Isao Kubo, Ikuyo Kinst-Hori
  • Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Further Information

Publication History

February 26, 1998

August 9, 1998

Publication Date:
31 December 1999 (online)

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Abstract:

By bioassay-guided fractionation using mushroom tyrosinase (EC 1.14.18.1), 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde was characterized as the principal tyrosinase inhibitor from three East African medicinal plants, the root of Mondia whitei (Hook) Skeels (Asclepiaceae), the root of Rhus vulgaris Meikle (Anacardiaceae), and the bark of Sclerocarya caffra Sond (Anacardiaceae). It inhibited the oxidation of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) by mushroom tyrosinase with an ID50 of 4.3 μg/ml (0.03 mM). The inhibition kinetics analyzed by a Lineweaver-Burk plot found this simple benzaldehyde derivative to be a mixed type inhibitor for this oxidation and affects on the enzyme in several ways. Based on finding this potent tyrosinase inhibitor, various related analogues were also tested in order to gain new insights into their inhibitory functions on a molecular basis.

Key words:

Mondia whitei - Asclepiaceae - Rhus vulgaris - Sclerocarya caffra - Anacardiaceae - tyrosinase inhibitor - 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde - Schiff base formation

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