Table I Characteristics of the Included Studies (=24) Author/year Country Study design Sex Age Financing Conflicts of interest Sardesai et al.2013 ,(11) India Case series F (=127) M (=33) 21–40 (=132) 20 (=140 40 (=14) Not reported Not reported Monteiro et al.2013 ,(12) India Randomized clinical trial F (=49) M (=11) All ages None None Cameli et al.2014 ,(13) Italy Case series F (=50) 28–40 (=22) 41–50 (=25) 51–62 (=3) None None Yenny, 2018 (14) Indonesia Randomized split-face clinical trial F (=45) 18 Ministry of Research and Technology through DIPA Andalas University funding 2016 Not reported Iraji et al.2014 ,(15) Iran Double-blind randomized clinical trial F and M (=40) All ages Not reported Not reported Sheikh et al.2021 ,(16) Pakistan Randomized clinical trial F (=27) M (=13) 18 Not reported Not reported Mesquita-Guimarães et al.2005 ,(17) Portugal Case series F (=17) M (=2) 23–50 Not reported Not reported ()107 Application of Kojic Acid in Treatment of Melasma

Table I Characteristics of the Included Studies (=24) Author/year Country Study design Sex Age Financing Conflicts of interest Azzam et al.2009 ,(18) Egypt Randomized clinical trial F (=45) 24–50 Not reported Not reported Costa et al.2012 ,(19) Brazil Randomized clinical trial F beginning (=120) end (=102) 18–50 Material supplied by Mantecorp Chemical and Mantecorp Skincare None Berardesca et al.2019 ,(20) Italy Case series F (=91) M (=9) 18 Relief Srl, Italy None Desai et al.2019 ,(2) Brazil Case series F (=55) 27–60 Not reported Not reported Bhagwat et al.2016 ,(21) Pakistan Randomized clinical trial F and M (=60) 18–45 Not reported Not reported Chowdhury et al.2012 ,(22) Bangladesh Case series F and M (=30) 15–50 Not reported Not reported Fragoso-Covarrubias et al.2015 ,(23) Mexico Randomized clinical trial F (=63) 29–59 Not reported Not reported Tsilika et al.2011 ,(24) France Case series F (=10) Not reported Not reported None Xing et al.2021 ,(25) China Case series F (=26) M (=1) 18–65 Natural Science Foundation of China and Shanghai Sailing Program None ()108 JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE