JP2010105970A - Estrogenic action agent and external preparation for skin containing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an estrogenic action agent, in detail, the estrogenic action agent comprising the extract of Camellia japonica in Theaceae, and applied to external preparations for skin, miscellaneous goods, clothes, foods or the like. <P>SOLUTION: There is provided the estrogenic action agent comprising the extract of Camellia japonica in Theaceae. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an estrogenic agent. More particularly, the present invention relates to an estrogen-like agent comprising an extract of Camellia japonica belonging to the genus Camellia, which exhibits a high effect even at low concentrations, and a skin external preparation containing the same.

Estrogen (follicular hormone) is a kind of female hormone, and is used as a general term for hormones that exhibit estrus and similar substances. As natural estrogens, estrone, estradiol, estriol and the like are known, and estradiol is the main one. Synthetic estrogens having biological activities equivalent to those are also known. Estrogens are mainly secreted from the ovarian follicles and corpus luteum, but also from the fetal placenta, adrenal gland, and ovaries during pregnancy. Estrogen secretion from the ovaries is feedback-regulated through the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary gland of the brain, thus establishing the estrous cycle. Estrogens act via their receptors, and have receptors in various tissues as well as the target tissues, genital organs and mammary glands, and their effects are systemic. Thus, estrogens not only affect reproductive function, but also affect the brain, cardiovascular, skeletal, skin, and other tissues and are deeply involved in the health of adult women. The main physiological effects of estrogen include endometrial proliferation, myometrial development, expression of secondary sexual characteristics, mediation of menstrual cycle, induction of maternal changes during pregnancy, and promotion of growth secretion of mammary ducts It is done. Also in men, estrogen receptors exist in the brain, cardiovascular, skeletal, skin, and other tissues, and estrogen converted from male hormone (testosterone) acts by the action of the metabolic enzyme aromatase. Therefore, estrogen is deeply related to health in men. Lack of estrogen secretion or hormonal imbalance has a particularly prominent effect in women, leading to premenstrual syndrome (PMS), menstrual abnormalities, menopause, etc., and if the endogenous estrogen continues to decline, the elasticity of the skin It is said to cause sexual decline, sexual pain and urinary incontinence due to urogenital atrophy, hyperlipidemia (change in lipid metabolism), osteoporosis and the like. Moreover, among women in their 20s and 40s, hormonal balance is disrupted due to excessive stress and diet associated with social advancement, and juvenile climacteric disorders exhibiting symptoms similar to climacteric disorders are increasing. Thus, lack of estrogen secretion or hormonal imbalance is a very big problem in improving the quality of life of women. Treatment of symptoms associated with lack of estrogen secretion or hormonal imbalance, such as PMS and climacteric disorder, treatment with diuretics, tranquilizers, analgesics, vitamins, etc., and hormones such as estrogen agonists It is performed by hormone replacement therapy that is administered directly. However, hormonal therapy is very difficult to adjust, and also adversely affects other hormones, which may disturb the homeostasis. In addition, estrogen agonists currently used are known to have side effects such as gastrointestinal disorders, thrombosis, uterine bleeding, liver disorders, etc., and long-term administration may cause uterine cancer, breast cancer, etc. It has been known.
Therefore, in recent years, as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 5, proposals have been made to try to prevent the aging of skin and the like by adjusting female hormone balance using an extract of animals and plants having an estrogen-like action. However, none of these components can stably obtain sufficient effects, and it has been difficult to realize prevention of skin aging and improvement of skin quality.
JP 2001-103931 A JP 2003-277274 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-15579 JP 2006-241044 A JP 2007-191452 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an estrogen-like agent effective for preventing skin aging and improving skin quality.

  As a result of repeated research to solve the above problems, we found that extracts extracted from specific parts of specific plants have a high estrogenic effect and an anti-aging effect to assist it, and obtain the desired estrogenic agent It came to.

That is, the present invention
(1) an estrogenic agent comprising an extract of Camellia japonica belonging to the genus Camellia,
It is.
(2) a skin external preparation containing the estrogen-like agent according to (1),
It is.

  The estrogen-like agent of the present invention exhibits a high effect from a low concentration, and is applied to an external preparation for skin, miscellaneous goods, clothing, food, and the like. In addition, the topical skin preparation containing an estrogen-like agent is excellent in stability, and as an anti-aging effect on the skin, it is effective in improving rough skin, preventing and improving wrinkles, and beautifying the skin. There is no etc. and it is excellent in usability.

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail.
The estrogenic agent of the present invention is obtained by extraction with various solvents from the seeds or petals of Camellia japonica belonging to the genus Camellia, and the main component is saponin. Saponin is a type of glycoside in which oligosaccharides are bound to triterpenes or steroids, and it means “bubbles” in the same way as soap bubbles. That is, it has both a hydrophilic part and a hydrophobic part structurally, and has a surface active action. Therefore, it is one of the substances useful for health such as suppressing absorption of cholesterol in human food. It is generally known that it is contained in soybeans, red beans, oolong tea, asparagus, ginseng, etc., and camellia seeds also contain camellia pononin. Remaining rice cake) is used. The camellia petals also contain camellia flower saponins, which have been reported to have an antioxidant action, an alcohol absorption action, and the like (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-371092).

  The camellia camellia used in the extract of the camellia used in the present invention is a plant belonging to the genus Camellia belonging to the camellia family, and its scientific name is called Camellia japonica. Yabutsubaki is an evergreen tree that represents Japan's laurel forest and is distributed in the hills of Honshu (south of Aomori Prefecture), Shikoku, and Kyushu.

  The camellia extract of the present invention is a camellia seed extract extracted from a camellia seed or a camellia flower extract extracted from a petal of a camellia. The Azalea extract is usually prepared as follows. That is, in order to obtain an extract from a camellia seed, the oil content (camellia oil) contained in the seed is extracted with a solvent such as hexane or steamed and then squeezed and squeezed to remove the seed residue from the sun or dry After drying with a machine, it is obtained by extraction with heating or refluxing or immersion in water or a water-soluble solvent or a mixture thereof. Moreover, in order to obtain an extract from the petals of a camellia, hydrocarbons, esters, ketones, ethers, halogenated hydrocarbons are used as they are or after being crushed or dried. It can be obtained by extraction by heating under reflux or immersion together with one or more solvents selected from alcohols, alcohols and water. Among these, those extracted with one or more solvents of water, ethanol, propylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, 1,3-butylene glycol and glycerin are preferable, and water, 1,3-butylene are more preferable. Extracted with one or more solvents of glycol or glycerin.

  In the present invention, the present invention can be applied to external preparations for skin, miscellaneous goods, clothes, foods, and the like in order to further exert the estrogenic action of the extract of Camellia japonica. Moreover, the blending amount of the Azalea extract at that time is preferably 0.0001% by mass or more as a dry residue, and particularly when used for an external preparation for skin, 0.0001 to 0.00 as the dry residue. More preferably, it is 5 mass%.

  In the present invention, “estrogen-like action” means various physiological actions of estrogen (control of metabolic activity in various cells, etc.) through binding to estrogen receptors.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples. In addition,% in a table | surface represents the mass%.
(Examples 1-2)
A camellia extract was obtained from the petals and seeds of a camellia as follows.
(1) Preparation of a camellia flower extract After drying the petals of a camellia in the sun, add a 4-fold mass ratio of 50 mass% 1,3-butylene glycol aqueous solution, and heat to reflux at 70 ° C. for 3 days. From this, it was filtered to obtain a flower extract of camellia. The dry residue of this Azalea camellia flower extract was measured and found to be 1.2%.

(2) Preparation of a camellia seed extract After steaming a camellia seed, the camellia oil was squeezed and the camellia oil was squeezed. The remaining camellia seed residue was dried in the sun and pulverized to about 1 mm with a pulverizer. . Furthermore, 5 times the amount of water by mass ratio is added to the pulverized product, heated and refluxed at 70 ° C. for 3 days, and then added with 1,3-butylene glycol in an amount equivalent to that of water and filtered. A seed extract was obtained. The dry residue of this camellia seed extract was measured and found to be 0.3%.
The estrogen-like action was evaluated by the following method for the Azalea camellia extract obtained in (1) and (2) above. An action rate of 120% or more was evaluated as having an activity of an estrogen-like action, and as a comparison, Puera lila milifica root extract (dry residue 2%) was also evaluated simultaneously. The results are shown in Table 1.

[Evaluation method of estrogen-like action]
The estrogen-like activity of the extract was measured by a method for examining the effect on the proliferation of estrogen-dependent cells (In vitro cell. Dev. Biol. 28A, 595-602, 1992). That is, human breast cancer cell-derived MCF-7 cells (JCRB0134) were treated with 5% FBS (charcoal dextran treatment) and Eagle's MEM (phenol red removed) containing 1 mM sodium pyruvate at 5 × 10 ⁴ cells / cell. A cell suspension (0.1 mL) suspended at a density of mL was seeded on a 96-well microplate and cultured at 37 ° C. under 5% CO ₂ for 24 hours. Thereafter, samples of various concentrations were added to the culture plate and cultured for 6 days. After culturing, the cell concentration was measured by the MTT reduction method to obtain an estrogenic effect. In addition, the cell cultured without the sample addition was used as a control, and the estrogenic action of this cell was taken as 100%.

  From Table 1, high activity was confirmed from a very low concentration even when compared with Puerala milifica root extract, which is considered to have a high female hormone-like action, in both the Japanese camellia flower extract and Japanese camellia seed extract.

(Examples 3 to 5)
Using the Azalea flower extract and Azalea seed extract obtained in (1) and (2) above, skin external preparations as skin lotions shown in Table 2 were prepared, and 6 items were evaluated according to the following evaluation criteria. Was done. The results are shown in Table 2.
<Evaluation items and evaluation criteria>

(1) Skin familiarity 20 females (28 to 61 years old) are panelists and the skin feel is determined as follows after washing the face, and the average of 20 persons is obtained. An average value of 1.5 points or more was evaluated as a skin external preparation having a good feel during use.
2 points: When you feel familiar with the skin during use.
1 point: If you feel a little familiar to the skin during use.
0 points: When the user feels that familiarity with the skin is bad.

(2) Stickiness after use 20 women (28 to 61 years old) are panelists, and after washing their face, the skin feel after 10 minutes using skin external preparations is determined as follows. An average value was obtained, and an average value of 1.5 points or more was evaluated as a skin external preparation having no stickiness after use.
2 points: When there is no stickiness.
1 point: When the skin feels somewhat sticky.
0 points: When the skin feels very sticky.

(3) Skin roughening effect 10 panelists (32 to 50 years old) with rough skin are used as panelists, and the skin condition when the topical skin preparation is used twice a day for 2 consecutive days is used as a sensory test. And it determined as follows, calculated | required the average value of 10 persons, and evaluated that the average value of 1.5 points or more is a skin external preparation with a rough skin improvement effect.
2 points: When it is felt that rough skin has been cured.
1 point: When it feels that the rough skin has been cured somewhat.
0 point: When it feels that the rough skin improvement effect is not seen at all.

(4) Wrinkle prevention / improvement effect About the condition of skin when 20 females (28 to 61 years old) with rough skin are used as panelists and the topical skin preparation is used twice a day for up to 4 weeks. A sensory test was performed and the following determination was made. The average value of 20 persons was obtained, and an average value of 1.5 points or more was evaluated as a skin external preparation having an effect of improving skin roughness.
2 points: When wrinkles are clearly reduced.
1 point: When wrinkles are felt to be slightly reduced.
0 points: When wrinkles are not reduced or increased.

(5) Skin beautifying effect 20 panelists (28 to 61 years old) are panelists, and the skin condition when skin external preparations are used twice a day for 2 weeks in a row is tested as follows. The average value of 20 persons was determined, and an average value of 1.5 points or more was evaluated as a skin external preparation having an effect of giving a skin feel and transparency.
2 points: When you feel that the skin is obviously skinny and youthful.
1 point: When the skin feels a little youthful and the skin feels a little youthful.
0 point: When it is felt that the skin beautifying effect is weak, not the skin.

(6) Stability over time The cosmetic was sealed in a transparent glass container and stored at 0 ° C., 25 ° C., and 40 ° C. for 3 months. The appearance was observed and evaluated in the following three stages.
○: Good stability (no change in appearance at any temperature)
Δ: Slightly poor (slightly at any temperature, causing precipitation or slight discoloration)
×: Stability failure (at any temperature, precipitation occurs or separates, or discoloration is significant)

  From Examples 1 to 3, the lotion using the extract of Azalea camellia, which is a component of the present invention, is excellent in skin roughness improving effect, wrinkle prevention / improving effect, excellent skin beautifying effect, and skin conformability, stickiness, etc. In addition to excellent usability, the stability was also excellent. On the other hand, in Comparative Examples 1 and 2, sufficient performance was not obtained. That is, in Comparative Example 1, the component of the present invention is not blended, and in Comparative Example 2, a different plant extract is used instead of the component of the present invention, so that rough skin improvement effect, wrinkle prevention / improvement effect, beautiful skin The effect is weak.

Claims (2)

An estrogen-like agent consisting of an extract of Camellia japonica from the Camellia family. A skin external preparation containing the estrogen-like agent according to claim 1.