Post – The amazing properties of Nobiletin – Not just for your oily skin!
Structure of Nobiletin
Picture of nude mouse
Nobiletin reduces oily skin
Our Tangerine Anti-Shine Cream is being discovered by more and more people with oily skin issues. As is discussed elsewhere <link> on this blog, citrus fruits, and in particular tangerines, contain relatively large amounts of Nobiletin. This compound has been shown to reduce the amount of oil that is produced by the skin. Our Anti-Shine Cream contains a special extract from tangerine peels that is enriched in nobiletin and this is why it works so well to reduce oily skin.
If you ever wondered what other things Nobiletin can do, this post is for you. As it turns out, Nobiletin also has several other important beneficial properties. This post illustrates these, and hopefully after reading you will agree that this compound has the potential for great future medical applications. There are a number of papers that describe the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties of Nobiletin. This post describes some of the work of Akira Murakami and co-workers (Ref 1).
Nobiletin reduces the generation of free radicals
Free radicals are molecules that can be produced by for example white blood cells during an immune response. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules and can damage cells and cause inflammation and even cancer. Because the consumption of citrus fruits has been found to be beneficial for cancer prevention, Muarkami’s group decided to study various extracts of satsuma mandarins, one of the most popular citrus fruits in Japan. When they tested the various fractions, they found that the fractions that contain Nobiletin were able to reduce by up to 58% the production of free radicals by cells that had been stimulated to produce them. They found that this inhibitory action of Nobiletin was about as potent as compared to resveratrol, the compound that is responsible for the famous health benefits of red wine.
Anti-Inflammatory activity of Nobiletin
The researchers also looked at the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activity of Nobiletin on skin. When a chemical called TPA (12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate) is applied to the skin of mice, it causes the accumulation of activated white blood cells in that area. This in turn causes inflammation. The researchers showed that if the skin was pre-treated with nobiletin 30 minutes before the TPA application, they could reduce by 3-fold the number of white blood cells that accumulate in the skin, significantly reducing the amount of inflammation.
Nobiletin reduces tumor-formation
The combined application of DMBA (7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene) and TPA to mouse skin results in the formation of skin tumors over time. The researchers showed that if they treated the skin beforehand with Nobiletin they could reduce the tumor incidence by 42% and the number of skin tumors by 61% to 76%.
In summary, Nobiletin is quite a powerful compound with several beneficial medicinal properties. It will be exiting to see whether further research will confirm these beneficial properties for Nobiletin and whether such research will eventually lead to further Nobiletin-based products. In the mean time, let’s spread the word on the oily skin reducing properties of this exiting substance!
For further reading:
<links>
References:
1. Murakami A, et al (2000) Inhibitory effect of Citrus Nobiletin on Phorbol Ester-induced Skin Inflammation, oxidative Stress, and Tumor Promotion in Mice. Cancer Research 60: 5059-5066
Nobiletin reduces oily skin
Our Tangerine Anti-Shine Cream is being discovered by more and more people with oily skin issues. As is discussed elsewhere on this blog, citrus fruits, and in particular tangerines, contain relatively large amounts of Nobiletin. This compound has been shown to reduce the amount of oil that is produced by the skin. Our exclusive patent pending Anti-Shine Cream contains a special extract from tangerine peels that is enriched in nobiletin.
If you ever wondered what other things Nobiletin can do, this post is for you. As it turns out, Nobiletin also has several other important beneficial properties. This post illustrates these, and you will find that this compound has the potential for great future medical applications. There are a number of papers that describe the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties of Nobiletin. This post describes some of the work of Akira Murakami and co-workers (Ref 1).
Nobiletin reduces the generation of free radicals
Free radicals are molecules that can be produced by white blood cells during an immune response. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules and can damage cells and cause inflammation and even cancer. Because the consumption of citrus fruits has been found to be beneficial for cancer prevention, Muarkami’s group decided to study various extracts of satsuma mandarins, one of the most popular citrus fruits in Japan. When they tested the various fractions, they found that the fractions that contain Nobiletin were able to reduce by up to 58% the production of free radicals by cells that had been stimulated to produce them. They found that this inhibitory action of Nobiletin was about as potent as compared to resveratrol, the compound that is responsible for the famous health benefits of red wine.
Anti-Inflammatory activity of Nobiletin
The researchers also looked at the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activity of Nobiletin on skin. When skin gets severely irritated, activated white blood cells accumulate in the affected area. This in turn causes inflammation. The researchers showed that if they treated the skin with nobiletin they could reduce by 3-fold the number of white blood cells that accumulate in the skin, significantly reducing the amount of inflammation.
Nobiletin reduces tumor-formation
As one would expect based on it’s suppressive effects on free radicals and inflammation, Nobiletin is quite effective in the prevention of a variey of skin tumors. Indeed, the researchers were able to show that topical applications of Nobiletin at very low concentations were able to reduce skin tumor incidence by up to 43% and the number of skin tumors per incidence by up to 76% (Ref 1).
Summary
In summary, Nobiletin is quite a powerful compound with several beneficial medicinal properties. It will be exiting to see whether further research will confirm these beneficial properties for Nobiletin and whether such research will eventually lead to further Nobiletin-based products. In the mean time, let’s spread the word on the oily skin reducing properties of this exiting substance!
For further reading:
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More information on our Anti-Shine Cream
References:
1. Murakami A, et al (2000) Inhibitory effect of Citrus Nobiletin on Phorbol Ester-induced Skin Inflammation, oxidative Stress, and Tumor Promotion in Mice. Cancer Research 60: 5059-5066
