Inhibitory activities of phenolic compounds isolated from Chionanthus retusa flower on biological enzymes

This study was designed to determine the biological activities of Chionanthus retusus flower extracts. Water and 90% ethanol extracts of C. retusus flower were prepared. The inhibitory activities of water and ethanol extracts with a phenolic content of 200 μg/mL against xanthine oxidase were 25.60% and 15.92%, respectively. Further, the water extract did not show any inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase whereas the ethanol extract showed 100.00% inhibition of α-glucosidase. The inhibitory activities of the extracts against tyrosinase were 17.27% (water extract) and 36.13% (ethanol extract), which suggest that the extracts may have a whitening effect. The water extract did not inhibit elastase activity but showed a collagenase-inhibitory activity of 20.21%. On the contrary, the ethanol extract showed 96.26% and 35.93% inhibition of collagenase and elastase, respectively. These findings suggest that the extracts may have an anti-wrinkle effect. Lastly, the extracts showed a hyaluronidase inhibitory activity of 36.96% (water extract) and 88.70% (ethanol extract), suggesting that they may have an anti-inflammatory effect. The results indicate that C. retusus flower extracts containing phenolic compounds can be used as functional resources because they have anti-gout, carbohydrate degradation-inhibitory, whitening, anti-wrinkle, and anti-inflammatory effects.