Asian J Beauty Cosmetol. 2008; 6(2): 1-8.
A Study on the utilization of functional cosmetics materials using the bioactive compounds from Buckwheat
Hyun-Hwa Lee
ABSTRACT
In recent years, the interest in herbal medicinal products, especially in the field of dermatology and cosmetics, has risen enormously. Among the many kinds of plants, buckwheat is an alternative crop belonging to the Polygonaceae family. Two species of buckwheat are the main ones cultivated world-wide, namely, Fagopyrum esculentum Moehch and Fagopyrum Tartaricum Gaerth. The former is known as 'common buckwheat' and the latter as 'tartary buckwheat'. F. esculentum is the main from cultivated in Korea. Buckwheat's major health-promoting roles are anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive effects that originated mostly from the actions of flavonoids. Flavonoids are plant phytochemicals that cannot be synthesized by human. Abrupt increases in these flavonoids in buckwheat seeds occur during germination. In this report we studied the differences between common buckwheat and tartary buckwheat and also, between buckwheat seed and buckwheat germinated. In addition, we confirmed various bioactivities of buckwheat germinated which would be contributed to develop new functional cosmetics. From the above results, we suggest buckwheat germinaged has a sufficient potentiality to be utilized as cosmetics natural materials and we will carry out to make some specific cosmetics and to test their effectiveness in the near future.
Keywords : Buckwheat, Rutin, Functional cosmetics