Mulberry or Morus Alba is a skin lightener that you’ll commonly see in South Korean and Japanese products. Its a fruit tree that’s found in China, India, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries. The bark, leaf, fruit, branches – basically everything is used.
It has been used for ages in traditional medicine because of its many benefits (e.g.) anti-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and so on.
In lab studies, show that chemical compounds contained in Mulberry inhibit melanin formation, specifically it inhibits Tyrosinase activity in mushroom assays. If you are wondering why mushrooms? Well, if you are an academic / researcher on a budget, then a mushroom assay is a relatively cheap and effective mechanism to screen for potential inhibitors of melanin formation.
One study compared the melanin inhibitory effects of Morus Alba to Arbutin. (see this BLOG on Arbutin). The authors of this study found that 100 ug/ml of Morus Alba extract achieved the same level of Tyrosinase inhibition (c70%) as 138 ug/ml of Arbutin.
Why haven’t the Ordinary put this in a serum?
I don’t know.
All the studies I have seen do not involve human trials but its a cosmetic ingredient. It just may be the cost of getting a sufficient quantity of cosmetic grade Mulberry extract outweighs any benefit. Also, mulberry is a very seasonal and delicate tree. If there are better, cheaper, and synthetic alternatives to the mulberry, the Ordinary isn’t going to bottle it…
Are there side-effects of using Morus Alba?
Not that I can find and this may be because there are no trials done using human cells. But, I am reassured that its been used in traditional medicine for absolutely yonks.
Sources
All the information contained in today’s blog is attributable to the following sources:
Yang Z et al, Bioassay-guided screening and isolation of α-glucosidase and tyrosinase inhibitors from leaves of Morus alba Food Chemistry Volume 131, Issue 2, 15 March 2012, Pages 617-625
K.-H. Wang et al Cosmetic applications of selected traditional Chinese herbal medicines, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 106 (2006) 353–359
Couteau C, Coiffard l, Overview of Skin Whitening Agents: Drugs and Cosmetic Products Cosmetics 2016, 3(3), 27
Li H X et al, Identification of Anti-Melanogenesis Constituents from Morus alba L. Leaves, Molecules 2018, 23(10), 2559