Ginger family root found to reduce UV-induced skin wrinkles, study shows

"I thought it was just a simple spice for adding flavor to food."

Growing numbers of young people are concerned about facial wrinkles. The leading cause is sun exposure. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays triggers photoaging of the skin, leading to wrinkle formation.

For those worried about increasing wrinkles, there is good news. Researchers have found that an ultrasonic extract of zedoary — the rhizome of a plant in the ginger family — is effective at improving UV-induced skin wrinkles.

Scientists at the Korea Food Research Institute confirmed that applying a zedoary ultrasonic extract to mice exposed to ultraviolet radiation reduced wrinkle formation in the skin.

Ginger is a widely used spice known for its sharp, pungent flavor and aroma. It is recognized in traditional Korean medicine as a medicinal herb and in the West as a superfood, and is accepted as a functional health ingredient. Zedoary, which belongs to the ginger family, is among the hardest root-based medicinal materials and has long been used in a variety of herbal remedies.

The researchers demonstrated the wrinkle-reducing effects of the zedoary ultrasonic extract through both human cell and animal experiments. After inducing an inflammatory response in human keratinocytes via UV irradiation — which increased the expression of enzymes that promote inflammation and break down collagen — the team confirmed that the extract significantly reduced the expression of both enzymes.

Animal experiments using mice yielded similar results: expression of the inflammation-inducing enzyme and collagen-degrading enzyme was suppressed, and wrinkle formation decreased. In a 13-week trial in which the extract was applied to the skin in acetone three times a week and UV rays were directed at the back one hour later, the group treated with the zedoary ultrasonic extract showed improvement in wrinkle width and depth compared with the control group.

Zedoary is not the only natural substance found to suppress skin wrinkles.

Korea Food Research Institute researchers also demonstrated that sulfuretin — a naturally derived compound found in lacquer trees and other plants — inhibits UV-induced skin wrinkle formation.

Sulfuretin is a flavonoid found in plants, primarily in lacquer trees, and has been shown to suppress chronic conditions such as atopic dermatitis and metabolic diseases.

The researchers said that when sulfuretin was applied, the activity of matrix metalloproteinases — enzymes that break down collagen fibers in normal cells and are elevated by UV exposure — fell to levels seen in UV-untreated groups, and collagen degradation within human skin tissue was also inhibited.

"This research is significant in that it both strengthens our competitiveness in discovering materials for skin-care applications and presents new candidates for inhibiting skin aging," the researchers said.