235 IMPROVEMENT OF MELASMA WITH GLABRIDIN
MELANIN DISTRIBUTION
In Figure 3A, compared with the BC, the distribution of melanin granules in the NC
group increased, while the distribution of melanin granules of the model in the PC group
decreased significantly. Compared with the NC group, the distribution of melanin granules
in the whitening serum group clearly decreased, indicating that the whitening serum had
a significant improvement on the reduction of melanin granules in the melanin model.
The relative IOD value represents relative stain fluorescent strength. As can be seen
quantitatively in Figure 3B, the NC group, 50mJ/cm2 UVB, produced a relative IOD of
3.2. It shows the induction of melanin accumulation significantly (P 0.01). Compared
with the NC group, the relative IOD value of whitening essence group was significantly
decreased 78.1% (P 0.01).
Figure 2. Changes of L* value (A) and melanin content (B) in melanin model. Data are expressed as the
mean ± SD (n =3). #P 0.05 and ##P 0.01 indicate significant differences between the BC group and the
NC group. *P 0.05 and **P 0.01 indicate significant differences between the NC group and the other group.
Figure 3. Detection of melanin distribution in the 3D reconstructed pigmented skin model (A) and the
relative IOD value (B). Data are expressed as the mean ± SD (n =3). #P 0.05 and ##P 0.01 indicate
significant differences between the BC group and the NC group. *P 0.05 and **P 0.01 indicate significant
differences between the NC group and the other group.

236 JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE
CLINICAL ASSESSMENT
Melasma area. As shown in Figure 4A, an increasing skin glossiness was observed for the
control and treated groups. Specially, a significant increase was found for treated groups
until the day 28 treatments, compared to the initial treatment (day 0), while the control
group only displayed a slight increase with significant difference. The differences between
the control and treated groups were clearly observed after a 14-day experiment, where
treated groups showed higher glossiness than the control group. The ITA values (Figure 4B)
of the experiment group and the control group increased significantly on day 28 and day 56
compared with day 0 (P 0.01). There was significant difference between the experiment
Figure 4. Clinical study of melasma areas. The changes of (A) glossiness, (B) ITA, (C) the value of L*, (D)
melanin area proportion, and (E) the content of melanin of these subjects treated by the test sample (the
whitening serum group) and placebo (control group) along with the varied periods. *P 0.05 and **P 0.01
indicate significant differences compared with day 0. #P 0.05 and ##P 0.01 indicate significant differences
between experiment group and control group.