CA2823423A1 - Moisturizing chinese herbal medicine composition, preparation method and use thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a Chinese herbal medicine composition having a moisture-retaining effect, containing water and/or solvent extracts of raw materials in the following parts by weight: 20-50 Asparagus cochinchinensis, 20-50 dried rehmannia root, 10-40 Dendrobium nobile, and 10-40 Dioscorea opposita. The composition can assist skin against drying in a dry environment, and prevent moisture loss.

Description

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Moisturizing Chinese herbal medicine composition, preparation method and use thereof Field of the invention The present invention relates to cosmetic field, particularly to an extract of Chinese herbal medicines, its preparation and its use in cosmetics, as well as a Chinese herbal medicine composition containing the extract of Chinese herbal medicines having a moisturizing effect, its preparation and its use in cosmetics.
Background of the invention The skin is composed of epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous adipose tissue, wherein each layer contains moisture. The key points for whether the skin is young, plump, shiny and soft depends on the moisture content presented in the skin.
The moisture content in infant skin is high, so their skin appears to be fine, young and shiny. The moisture content in the old people is low, so the skin appears to be dry and wizened and is easy to be desquamated and even to have wrinkles.
Moisturizing is an eternal subject and an important condition, which ensures the skin healthy and postpones the skin aging. People keep trying to research and develop a moisturizing composition with excellent performance.
On the one hand, with the increasing age, the moisturizing organization of the skin is injured and the moisture content between the cells of the skin tissue is decreased. When the moisture content in the stratum corneum is decreased to lower than 10%, the skin will appear dried, elasticity lost, winkled and the skin aging is accelerated. On the other hand, the skin is injured by heat, cold, wind, cleaning agent and UV radiation and the top layer of the skin will become more dried.
Thus, it is very important to retain the moisture of the skin and decrease the loss of the moisture. Currently, the moisturizing agents for the skin in the market mainly include blocking agent, hygroscopic agent, hydrophilic matrix, anti-light agent as well as some special additives.
It is believed by the traditional medicine that the reason for the dried skin lies in lung and kidney dysfunction, water metabolism imbalance and the skin being not moisturized by the body fluid. Therefore, the key to moisturizing skin is to invigorate the lung, nourish the kidney and nourish the body fluid. There are some recitations for moisturizing and moistening skin in the references of Traditional Chinese Medicine, wherein Chinese medicine beauty formulation is recorded and description from theory to practice is included. Recently there are some descriptions related to the effects of polysaccharide ingredients in current studies. The perfect combination of high water absorption and good film-forming property of the polysaccharide enable it to achieve a very good moisturizing effect. Plant polysaccharides are gradually applied to the skin moisturizing and polysaccharides are the main ingredients contained in most Chinese herbal medicines. All of these bring a bright future for us to find safe and efficient skin moisturizing agent.
Description of the invention The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an extract of Chinese herbal medicines having moisturizing effect.
To achieve the above object, the extract of Chinese herbal medicines according to the present invention is an extract of Chinese herbal medicines by water and/or solvent of the starting materials composed of 20-50 parts by weight of Asparagus cochinchinensis, 20-50 parts by weight of dried rehmannia root, 10-40 parts by weight of Dendrobium nobile, and 10-40 parts by weight of Dioscorea opposita. Said solvents are selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol, acetone, ethyl acetate or combinations thereof.
Asparagus cochinchinensis is the root of Asparagus cochinchinensis (Lour,) merr and is also named Asparagus. Asparagus cochinchinensis is plucked in the autumn and winter, cleaned and stem and fibrous root are removed. Then it is boiled in water or steamed thoroughly. Then its cortex is removed under heat, washed and dried. The Asparagus cochinchinensis is mainly distributed in the south China, southwest China and central China, Henan, Shandong and other provinces.
Asparagus cochinchinensis grows in highland, has white color, cleaning the lung,

2 strengthening the kidney, nourishing Yin and moistening dryness, keeping the beauty and protecting the skin. Rehmannia root grows in fertile central plain, has yellow color and sweet taste. It has the healthy ingredients derived from the plain, thick texture, strong flavor and rich in grease and is a good tonic agent. The fresh rehmannia root is the rehmannia root just plucked, has Yin property due to the healthy ingredients derived from the plain. As mentioned in "Herbal Notes" that "the Asparagus cochinchinensis is an important medicine for tonifying kidney and an excellent material for supplementing Yin". These two medicines, one for increase and another for decrease and one coming from the sky and another coming from the plain, contain essence of both Yin and Yang. Thus, "Compendium of Materia Medica"
recorded that: mixing powder of Asparagus cochinchinensis and prepared rehmannia root to make honey bolus as big as marbles, dissolving three marbles with warm wine and eating three times daily, then living in the mountain and going on a long journey without eating grains. Body becomes light and eyes become bright after the intake for ten days. One can recover from hundreds of diseases and whose face likes a flower after the intake for twenty days. The white hair becomes black and the dropped teeth grow again after the intake for thirty days. One can run like a horse after the intake for fifty days and whose life is prolonged after the intake for one hundred days. It is sky-earth-soup. Because these two medicines can be asorbed into the lung and kidney to supplement the lung fluid, nourish the kidney water, adjust the body fluid metabolism and make the skin and hair moist, so they can have tonic and moisturizing effects.
Rehmannia root refers to the medical part of root of plant rehmannia.
Rhhmannia is the dried root of Scrophulariaceae plants Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. It is plucked in autumn. Rehmannia root is cleaned from the rhizome, fibrous root and silt, then cooked slowly to about 80%. Rehmannia root is mainly distributed in Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Hubei and other provinces.
Dendrobium nobile refers to the medical part of fresh or dried stem of plant Dendrobium nobile. Dendrobium nobile is perennial epiphytic herb of Orchidales Dendrobium and mainly distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou province of China and tropical area of Asia. It can be plucked in any time of the year and preferably

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4 plucked in autumn, dried in oven or dried under the sun, cut into pieces and used in the form of crude materials.
Dendrobium nobile: It is sweet in taste, a little cold in nature and attributive to the stomach and kidney meridians. It can tonify stomach and promote fluid, nourish Yin and clear heat, nourish lung and tonify kidney, and can be used for treatment of cloudy wound and dry mouth and tongue. "Sheng Nong's herbal classic" recites:
it can tonify consumptive diseases of five internal organs and gain light weight and longevity. "Supplementary Records of Famous Physicians" recites: Dendrobium nobile can increase the muscle, clear the evil heat and prickly heat of the skin.
"Herbary" recites: The rounder and thinner Dendrobium nobile is the better, and it is essence-tonifying and Yin-strengthening, sinew-strengthening and deficiency-tonifying, foot and knee-invigorating, cold rigor-expelling, palpitation-eliminating and mind-setting. Jiuren XU recites: Dendrobium nobile's function is to clear stomach and promote body fluid and it is very suitable for the people having stomach and kidney fever due to deficiency. If it is desired to clear stomach and save the body fluid, it is necessary to use Dendrobium nobile.
Modern pharmacological studies show that, the effective ingredients in Dendrobium nobile include alkaloids, polysaccharides, trace elements, amino acids and the like.
The extracts thereof have excellent moisture-retaining effect and can increase the blood flux of capillary. Furthermore, the extracts can increase the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD) significantly, thus decreasing lipid peroxides (LPO). From the view point of adjusting the level of neurotransmitters of brain monoamine, the extracts can have anti-aging effects by acting as a similar inhibitor of monoamine oxidase (MAO).
Dioscorea opposita refers to the medical part of dried root of plant Dioscorea opposita. Dioscorea opposita is the dried root of Disocorea plant Dioscorea opposita Thumb.. It is plucked in winter after the stem and the leaves have withered.
It is cut from the rhizome, cleaned, removed from the cortex and fibrous root and dried.
Dioscorea opposita is currently distributed in North China, Northwest China and other provinces, such as Jiangxi in Yangtze River basin.
Dioscorea opposita is an assistant material. It can promote fluid and moisturize the skin. It is recited in "Compendium of Materia Medica" that it is beneficial to the kidney, spleen and stomach. It is antidiarrheal, can eliminate phlegm and moisturize the skin and hair. It is recited by Gao LI that Dioscorea opposita can be used to treat the dried skin with a good moisturizing effect. It is recorded in "Truth-seeking of Materia Medica" that Dioscorea opposita is belonging to food. The ancients added it into the decoction because it can invigorate spleen, replenish Qi and remove the internal heat. Although it is mild in nature, it can invigorate Yin of spleen and lungs, thus moisturizing the skin and hair and promoting the muscle. Since it is sweet, mild and cool and moisturizing in nature, it can invigorate lungs, kidney as well as spleen and stomach. Hence, it is one of the best materials among the tonics with being mild in nature and being good for acting as an assistant material.
The four types of medicines of the present invention are listed as the best materials by "Shen Nong's herbal classic" two thousands years ago, wherein Asparagus cochinchinensis can moisturize Yin, moisten dryness and invigorate heart and lungs and dried rehmannia root can clear heat, supplement body fluid and invigorate lungs and kidney. The Asparagus cochinchinensis and dried rehmannia root can be compared with the sky and the earth based on the promotion and demotion effect on the Qi, wherein they act as the monarch drug by moisturizing the head, face, heart, lungs, Qi and blood on the top and by invigorating liver, kidney, essence and blood at the bottom. Dendrobium nobile can invocate spleen and stomach, invigorate Yin and supplement the body flood, which by acting as the minister drug can invocate Qi, spleen and stomach, tonify and supplement the body fluid and beautify the skin. Dioscorea opposita can be beneficial to the stomach, supplement the body fluid and moisturize the skin, which by acting as the assistant drug can strengthen the effects on tonifying the stomach, supplementing the body fluid and moisturizing the skin. By using these four drugs together, five internal organs are adjusted together, the skin is moisturized and the body is clear and tonified.
The prescription is formulated in combination with large amounts of recitation of the ancient cosmetic references and prescriptions as well as repeated tests and adjustments.
Preferably, in the extract of the Chinese herbal medicines according to the present invention, the extraction is selected from decoction, refluxing extraction, soaking, diacolation or their combination.
Preferably, the extract according to the present invention is in a form selected from solution, powder, ointment, film or cream.
The present invention also provides a preferred method for the preparation of the extract of Chinese herbal medicines, wherein the method comprises:
Mixing thoroughly the starting materials composed of 20-50 parts by weight of Asparagus cochinchinensis, 20-50 parts by weight of dried rehmannia root, 10-parts by weight of Dendrobium nobile, and 10-40 parts by weight of Dioscorea opposita; Soaking with water or solvents for 0.5-1 hour then extracting;
wherein said solvents are selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol, acetone, ethyl acetate or combinations thereof.
Preferably, said method further comprises:
Filtering, extracting the filtering residue again and combining the filtrate;
Concentrating the filtrate to about 2-fold amount of the medicinal materials (V/W) (fold amount refers to the ratio between the volume of the solvent (m1) and the total weight of the medicinal materials (g));
Then carrying out alcohol precipitation;
Removing the solvent from the supernatant from the alcohol precipitation.
The product of alcohol precipitation can be formulated into desired formulations, such as solution, powder, ointment, film or cream.
Preferably, in above method, the soaked Chinese herbal medicine is extracted by decoction, refluxing extraction, soaking or diacolation.
Preferably, the alcohol for the alcohol precipitation is selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol or combinations thereof.

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The extracted solution of Chinese herbal medicines according to the present invention have good moisturizing effects, thus it can be applied into cosmetics. In particular, it is suitable for applying into cosmetics such as cosmetic skin cream, eye cream, facial mask, cleansing milk, lotion, essence and so on.
The extracted solution of Chinese herbal medicines according to the present invention can be applied onto skin for moisture-retaining directly or be added into cosmetics as functional additives, which can help the skin to resistant the dryness under a dried environment, prevent the moisture loss, maintain the moisture and beautify the skin. Furthermore, it can make the skin brilliant and moist and have no irritation on the skin. In addition, its cost is relatively low.
Brief description of the drawings Figure IA is the cell morphologies of the blank control group without incubation, wherein the cell is dried for 0 min.
Figure 1B is the cell morphologies of the blank control group without incubation, wherein the cell is dried for 15 min..
Figure 2A is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract A of Example 1 and dried for 0 min.
Figure 2B is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract A of Example 1 and dried for 15 mins.
Figure 3A is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract C of Example 3 and dried for 0 min.
Figure 3B is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract C of Example 3 and dried for 15 min.
Figure 4A is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract D of Example 4 and dried for 0 min.

Figure 4B is the cell morphologies, wherein the cell is incubated with the addition of extract D of Example 4 and dried for 15 min.
Embodiments The present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the following examples.
Example 1 Pure Chinese medicinal materials of Asparagus cochinchinensis 30g, dried rehmannia root 30g, Dendrobium nobile 30g and Dioscorea opposita 10g for a total weight of 100g were mixed thoroughly, to which 10-fold amount (fold amount refers to the ratio between the volume of the solvent (m1) and the total weight of the medicinal materials (g), hereinafter the same) of 75% (v/v) ethanol was added.
The mixture was kept for cold soaking for 48 h and then filtered. Ethanol was recovered from filtrate; and the resultant extracts were dissolved with water to make a solution with a concentration of crude drug of 1000 mg/ml, thus obtaining extract A in the form of solution.
Example 2 Pure Chinese medicinal materials of Asparagus cochinchinensis 30g, dried rehmannia root 50g, Dendrobium nobile lOg and Dioscorea opposita lOg for a total weight of 100g were mixed thoroughly, to which 10-fold amount of methanol was added. The mixture was subjected to refluxing extraction for 2 h, and filtered.
Methanol was recovered from filtrate; and the resultant extracts were dissolved with water to make a solution with a concentration of crude drug of 50 mg /ml, thus obtaining extract B in the form of solution.
Example 3 Pure Chinese medicinal materials of Asparagus cochinchinensis 50g, dried rehmannia root 30g, Dendrobium nobile 10g and Dioscorea opposita lOg for a total weight of 100g were mixed thoroughly, and decocted with 10-fold amount of water for about 2 h, concentrated and filtered. The supernatant was made into a solution with a concentration of crude drug of 1000 mg /m1 by adding water, thus obtaining extract C in the form of solution.

Example 4 Pure Chinese medicinal materials of Asparagus cochinchinensis 30g, dried rehmannia root 30g, Dendrobium nobile 30g and Dioscorea opposita 10g for a total weight of 100g were mixed thoroughly, and decocted with 10-fold amount of water for about 2 h, concentrated, precipitated after 2-fold amount of ethanol was added, and then filtered. Ethanol was recovered from filtrate; and the resultant extracts were dissolved with water and filtered to make a solution with a concentration of crude drug of 500 mg/ml, thus obtaining extract D in the form of solution.
Experiment 1- TGA test in vitro TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) is a kind of technology to determine the mass change of the material with temperature and time under programmed temperature via TGA instrument, which can indicate the change of amounts, such as water evaporation.
Water, 10% extract A of Example 1, extract B of Example 2, extract C of Example 3 and extract D of Example 4 with the same mass were placed under environment with the same temperature, and the mass changes in different time periods were measured by TGA instrument. Under the same time point, a higher residue ratio indicates a stronger capability for the extracts to combine the moisture and prevent the evaporation of the moisture and a better moisturizing effect.
The result was shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Sample Time/residue ratio 30 mins 60 mins 90 mins water 50.01 6.36 0 10% extract A of Example 1 56.89 17.5 0 10% extract B of Example 2 52.00 10.44 0 10% extract C of Example 3 56.60 18.96 0 10% extract D of Example 4 56.32 20.21 0 Experiment 2- An in vitro test of preventing moisture loss in keratinocytes , The capability of the extracts of the Examples in helping the cell to resist the dryness, prevent the moisture loss and maintain the original morphologies of the cell is investigated when the epidermal cells are under a dry environment using evaluation methods in vitro of cell platform according to relevant moisture-retaining mechanism.
9.9 ml MEM (Minimum Essential Media) culture medium was added to 0.1 ml of each of the extracts of the Examples, the resulting solution was subjected to suction filtration to formulate into a solution with a concentration of 1%. Similarly, 1%
glycerol solution was formulated as a positive control. The keratinocytes Hacat of human epidermis was chosen as the experiment cell. The cells incubated with normal MEM culture medium were used as the blank control group, the cells incubated with MEM culture medium containing 1% glycerol were used as the positive control and the cell incubated with MEM culture medium containing 1% extracts of Examples were used as extracts-treated group. After incubation for 24H, the liquid on the cells was absorbed and the cells was placed under the microscope (10 x20) to observe the time period the cells took from the normal to the dry (the morphologies were changed significantly). Photos were taken at 15 mins to record the morphologies. The details can be found in the attached Figures 1A-5B.
Experiment results:
Under the dry conditions given by the external environment, the cells incubated in the blank group without adding the extracts of Examples lost moisture gradually and the time to resist the dryness was 720 s. Compared with the blank group, the time to resist the dryness of the positive control group incubated with 1% glycerol was somewhat increased to be 780s. However, the keratinocytes incubated with each of the extracts of the Examples according to the present invention can help the skin cells to retain the moisture, give the cells a very good dry-resistance capability.
The time to resist the dryness was more than 780s and increased above 9% compared with the blank group, and the effect was better than the positive control with 1%
glycerol. The detailed results were shown in below Table.
Table 2 Average time to resist Difference %
the dryness (s) Blank control 720 1% glycerol 780 60 8.33%
Extract A of Example 1 810 90 12.5%
Extract B of Example 2 785 65 9.02%
Extract C of Example 3 805 85 11.81%
Extract D of Example 4 830 110 15.28%
At the 15th mins during the drying, the cells of blank group were already shrunk and lost water significantly. Its refractive index was increased, the morphologies were changed significantly. However, the cells incubated with each of the extracts of Examples according to the present invention can substantively maintain their original morphologies, indicating that each of the extracts of Examples according to the present invention has very good dryness-resistance and moisture-retaining effect.
Among them, particularly extract D of Example 4 has the best dryness-resistance and moisture-retaining effect and the time to resist the dryness can be increased up to 15.28%.
The above experimental studies indicate: the Chinese herbal medicine composition of the present Examples can give an excellent dry-resistance capability to the keratinocytes of the skin, reduce the moisture loss and help the skin to keep moist.

Claims (13)

1. An extract of Chinese herbal medicines, which is an extract by water and/or solvent of the starting materials composed of 20-50 parts by weight of Asparagus cochinchinensis, 20-50 parts by weight of dried rehmannia root, 10-40 parts by weight of Dendrobium nobile, and 10-40 parts by weight of Dioscorea opposita, said solvent is selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol, acetone, ethyl acetate or combinations thereof.

2. The extract of Chinese herbal medicines according to claim 1, wherein the extraction is selected from decoction, refluxing extraction, soaking or diacolation.

3. The extract of Chinese herbal medicines according to claim 1 or 2, wherein it is in a form selected from solution, powder, ointment, film or cream.

4. A Chinese herbal medicine composition having moisturizing effect, wherein it comprises an extract of Chinese herbal medicines according to any one of claims 1-3 .

5. Use of the Chinese herbal medicine composition of claim 4 in cosmetics.

6. A method for preparing an extract of Chinese herbal medicines, comprising steps of:
soaking the starting materials composed of 20-50 parts by weight of Asparagus cochinchinensis, 20-50 parts by weight of dried rehmannia root, 10-40 parts by weight of Dendrobium nobile, and 10-40 parts by weight of Dioscorea opposita with water and/or solvent for 0.5-1 hour and extracting, said solvent is selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol, acetone, ethyl acetate or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising filtering, extracting the filtering residue again and combining the filtrates;
concentrating the filtrate to about 2-fold amount of the medicinal materials (fold amount refers to the ratio between the volume of the solvent (ml) and the total weight of the medicinal materials (g));
then carrying out alcohol precipitation;
removing the solvent from the supernatant from the alcohol precipitation.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the alcohol used in alcohol precipitation is selected from methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, ethylene glycol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,3-butylene glycol, or combinations thereof.

9. A Chinese herbal medicine extract prepared according to the method of claim 6 or 7.

10. The Chinese herbal medicine extract of claim 9, wherein the Chinese herbal medicine extract is in a form selected from solution, powder, ointment, film or cream.

11. A Chinese herbal medicine composition having moisturizing effect, wherein it comprises a Chinese herbal medicine extract according to claim 9 or 10.

12. Use of a Chinese herbal medicine composition of claim 11 in cosmetics.

13. The use of claim 5 or 12, wherein the cosmetics is cosmetic skin cream, eye cream, facial mask, cleansing milk, lotion or essence.