Improved antioxidative and cytotoxic activities of chamomile(Matricaria chamomilla) florets fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum KCCM 11613P

Antioxidative and cytotoxic effects of chamomile（Matricaria chamomilla） fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum were investigated to improve their biofunctional activities. Total polyphenol（TP） content was measured by the Folin-Denis method, and the antioxidant activities were assessed by the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl（DPPH） method and β-carotene bleaching method. AGS, HeL a, LoV o, MCF-7, and MRC-5（normal） cells were used to examine the cytotoxic effects by 3-（4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl）-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium（MTT） assay. The TP content of fermented chamomile reduced from 21.75 to 18.76 mg gallic acid equivalent（mg GAE）/g, but the DPPH radical capturing activity of fermented chamomile was found to be 11.1% higher than that of nonfermented chamomile after 72 h of fermentation. Following the β-carotene bleaching, the antioxidative effect decreased because of a reduction in pH during fermentation. Additionally, chamomile fermented for 72 h showed a cytotoxic effect of about 95% against cancer cells at 12.7 mg solid/ml of broth, but MRC-5 cells were significantly less sensitive against fermented chamomile samples. These results suggest that the fermentation of chamomile could be applied to develop natural antioxidative and anticancer products.

Antimelanogenic effects of Inula britannica flower petal extract fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum KCCM 11613P

The inhibitory effects of Lactobacillus plantarum-fermented and non-fermented Inula britannica extracts on the tyrosinase activity were comparatively investigated to examine whether and how they improve the whitening activity, and the contents of total flavonoids and polyphenolics as bioactive compounds were determined. The skin whitening activity using in vitro or ex vivo tyrosinase and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine(L-DOPA) staining was examined. The total flavonoid content(TFC) was increased by 13.4% after 72h-fermentation. The viabilities of the B16F10 cells treated with the fermented and non-fermented control extracts were 100.26% and 92.15% at 500μg/ml, respectively. In addition, the inhibition of tyrosinase activity was increased by the fermented samples from 29.33% to 41.74% following fermentation for up to 72h. The tyrosinase activity of the untreated control group was increased to 145.69% in B16F10 cells. The results showed that I. britannica fermented by L. plantarum dose-dependently inhibited tyrosinase activity, which was stimulated by α-melanocyte stimulating hormone. These results suggest that lactic fermented I. britannica extracts can be used as effective skin-whitening materials.