Antioxidant and whitening activities of five unripe pear cultivars

Abstract

The present study was the first evaluation of the arbutin content, antioxidant activity, and whitening function of the unripe pears of five major Korean pear cultivars. Unripe pears were investigated 30 days after florescence for possible utilization as a whitening ingredient, instead of being thrown away for thinning out. Among the five cultivars tested, Gamcheonbae and Manpungbae had significantly higher total phenolics and arbutin contents, while Niitaka had lower values of both total phenolics and arbutin. For whitening activity related to tyrosinase and cellular melanin formation, Manpungbae also showed the strongest tyrosinase inhibition (4.9 %), and achieved 74% reduction of the cellular melanin compared to non-treated cells. These results indicate that unripe pears, especially the Manpungbae cultivar, could be useful for application as a possible natural whitening additive with high arbutin content and excellent whitening activity.

Keywords

• Unripe pear cultivar
• Arbutin
• antioxidant activity
• whitening activity