Glutathione scientific skin care generalist
Glutathione: generalist of scientific skin care
Friends who pay attention to whitening ingredients must be familiar with the name "glutathione". As one of the most widely used whitening ingredients, it can be found everywhere in skin care products, whitening needles, whitening pills and health food.
Businesses often advertise "glutathione" with free radical removal, antioxidant, anti-aging, whitening, freckle and other multiple effects, almost omnipotent.
But are these claims credible? Is it really that amazing? Learn more about the role of glutathione and its application in skin care from a scientific perspective.
What is glutathione?
Glutathione is widely found in plants, animals and microorganisms, and is one of the most important non-protein sulfhydryl compounds in living organisms. It is divided into reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG).
In living organisms, reduced glutathione (GSH) dominates, participates in intracellular REDOX reactions, and acts as a coenzyme for certain enzymes.
In the medical field, reduced glutathione (GSH) is widely used in the treatment of liver diseases, tumors, oxygen poisoning, aging and endocrine diseases.
In the food industry, it is often used as a bioactive additive and antioxidant.
Glutathione whitening mechanism
Glutathione is ubiquitous in the body and is the main "killer" of free radicals.
When ultraviolet light irradiates the skin, a large number of free radicals are produced, which activates the melanin production mechanism.
Glutathione is able to destroy these free radicals, thereby preventing the production of melanin in the first place.
In addition, it can inhibit the activity of tyrosinase, regulate the production process of melanin, help skin whitening, fade spots, and have anti-aging effects.
These benefits are supported by a large body of research literature.
Scientific skin care application of glutathione
In addition to whitening, the role of glutathione in scientific skin care also involves many aspects:
1. Anti-oxidation and anti-aging
Glutathione is one of the most important endogenous antioxidants in the human body, which can directly neutralize free radicals and reduce skin damage caused by oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is one of the main factors leading to skin aging, which damages collagen and elastic fibers, leading to sagging skin and wrinkles.
Glutathione protects skin cells from oxidative damage by scavenging free radicals, thus delaying skin aging.
Glutathione also regenerates other antioxidants (such as vitamins C and E), boosting the skin's overall antioxidant capacity.
This synergy gives it an important place in anti-aging skin care products.
2. Anti-inflammatory and repair
Glutathione has anti-inflammatory effects and can reduce the inflammatory response of the skin.
For sensitive, acne or damaged skin, glutathione can help relieve discomfort such as redness, swelling, itching and promote the repair of the skin barrier.
Studies have shown that glutathione can regulate the release of inflammatory mediators and inhibit the production of inflammatory factors, thereby improving the skin inflammatory state.
This property makes it potentially useful in restorative skin care products.
3. Enhance skin barrier function
The skin barrier is an important structure that protects the skin from external irritation and water loss.
Glutathione indirectly supports the health of skin barrier function by reducing oxidative stress and inflammatory responses.
It also promotes the normal differentiation of keratinocytes and enhances the skin's ability to repair itself.
4. Synergies with other whitening ingredients
Glutathione is often used in combination with other whitening ingredients (such as vitamin C, niacinamide, arbutin, etc.) to enhance the whitening effect. For example:
Vitamin C: Glutathione can regenerate oxidized vitamin C and restore its activity, thus prolonging the action time of vitamin C.
Niacinamide: Niacinamide inhibits the transfer of melanin to the epidermal, while glutathione reduces melanin production at the source, and the combination of the two can achieve a more comprehensive whitening effect.
Limitations of glutathione
Despite the powerful effects of glutathione, there is an important prerequisite for its application - stability.
Although reduced glutathione (GSH) is effective, it is very sensitive to light, water and high temperature, and has poor stability.
In an aqueous solution, it can only be stored for 2 hours at room temperature, even in a low temperature environment of 0 ~ 5℃, it can only be stored for 8 hours.
In medical applications, reduced glutathione is usually kept in the form of freeze-dried powder, refrigerated or frozen for transport and storage, and redissolved for use to ensure its activity and effectiveness.
However, in some medical-beauty injections, if the core ingredient of the whitening needle is reduced glutathione, and it is not a powder that is dissolved before use, but a pre-formulated solution, then the glutathione is likely to have been oxidized and lost most of its efficacy.
Similarly, reduced glutathione added to cosmetics, once added to toners, serums, lotions or creams, is difficult to maintain long-term activity, and will quickly decompose by oxidation.
Therefore, consumers may not be able to get the effect they should have when using it.
As for the reduced glutathione in whitening pills and health foods, although most of it is stored in powder form and has a relatively long shelf life, its long-term stability at room temperature is still in question.
Studies have shown that oral glutathione is less bioavailable, and its actual effects on the human body are controversial.
Future research direction
With the advancement of scientific skin care technology, glutathione has a broader application prospect.
Here are some future research directions:
Improve stability: Improve the stability of glutathione in skin care products through nanotechnology, liposome encapsulation and other methods.
Transdermal absorption technology: Development of novel transdermal absorption technology to enhance the skin permeability of glutathione.
Combination with other active ingredients: Study the synergistic effects of glutathione with other antioxidants and whitening ingredients to develop more efficient skin care formulas.
Sum up
Glutathione is indeed an excellent ingredient, with a variety of free radical scavenging, antioxidant, whitening, spot lightening, anti-inflammatory and repair benefits.
However, its stability is poor, which limits its effect in practical applications.
Although there are many cosmetics with glutathione added on the market, the glutathione in most products has lost its activity and is difficult to play its intended role.
For consumers, when choosing skin care products containing glutathione, they should pay attention to the formulation technology and stability of the product, and combine healthy living habits to better achieve skin care goals.
