Food-derived skin-care ingredient as a promising strategy for skin aging: Current knowledge and future perspectives

Skin aging involves complex biochemical reactions and has attracted a growing concern recently. For it, there is a great desire to replace the hazardous and easy-recurring “therapy means” with “daily care” based on some natural and healthy ingredients. According to a novel theory called “homology of cosmetic and food”, the safety, efficacy and accessibility of food-derived skin-care ingredients offer an attractive option for combating skin aging, which will be an inevitable trend of dermatology in the future. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major trigger of skin aging. It acts on the skin and generates reactive oxygen species, which causing oxidative stress. More, matrix metalloproteinase and melanin levels are also upregulated by the UV-activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and tyrosinase, respectively, resulting in collagen degradation and melanin deposition in the extracellular matrix. Through the existing studies, the relevant key biomarkers and biochemical pathways can be effectively controlled by skin-care ingredients from animal-derived and plant-derived foods as well as traditional herbs, thus preserving human skin from UV-induced aging in terms of antioxidant, collagen protection and melanin inhibition. To extend their application potential, some carriers represented by nanoliposomes can facilitate the transdermal absorption of food-derived skin-care ingredients by the variation of molecular weight and lipid solubility. The present review will provide an overview of the trigger mechanisms of skin aging, and focus on the molecular biology aspects of food-derived skin-care ingredients in skin matrix and the critical summarize of their research state.