Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: Long term investigation on chemical constituents of safflower result in the isolation of 11 compounds from its water extractive. Their structures were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic data analyses. To evaluate their effect on melanogenesis, the obtained substances were evaluated for their inhibitory activity against tyrosinase and compounds 2, 4 and 7 exhibited outstanding inhibition, with inhibitory ratios at 91.3%, 87.1% and 95.0% at 100 mM, compared to the positive control arbutin (54.3%). The combination modes between compounds and tyrosinase were reasonably deduced by molecular docking.

Key words: safflower, tyrosinase inhibition, docking study