Potential Extracts of Melastomataceae Species from Mount Merapi National Park as Sunprotection Material with Antioxidation and Antiglycation Activities

Abstract

Ethanol extracts from the leaves of Clidemia hirta (L.) D. Don., and Melastoma affine D. Don., growing in Mount Merapi National Park, Indonesia, had high  antioxidant activity similar to ascorbic acid. Natural substances with high  antioxidant activity potentially inhibit UV-induced skin photoaging. This study  aimed to investigate the sun protection factor (SPF) and antiglycation activity of  C. hirta and M. affine ethanol extracts to identify and obtain candidate  hotoprotective ingredients for sunscreen products. Proximate analysis of extract  simplicial was performed for standardization, and their secondary  metabolites quantified to understand their bioactivities. Flavonoids, alkaloids,  and saponins were quantified using the aluminum chloride, bromocresol green,  and vanillin-sulfuric acid methods, respectively. Phenolic compounds  and tannins were quantified using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The C. hirta  extract showed a higher SPF value in UV spectrophotometry, and antiglycation  activity through bovine serum albumin-glucose (BSAglucose) method, than the  M. affine extract. An antioxidant assay using the 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl  (DPPH) radical scavenging method confirmed that the C. hirta and M. affine extracts were more potent and had slightly lower antioxidant activity,  respectively, than ascorbic acid. The high bioactivity of C. hirta extract was likely  due to phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and tannins, because these metabolites  were more abundant in C. hirta extract than in M. affine extract.  These results indicated that the ethanol extract of C. hirta leaves has the  potential to be developed as an ingredient of sunscreen products for skin  photoprotection.&nbsp