Angelica pubescens, a plant of the family Umbelliferae, has been widely used as traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of many diseases. However, there has been minimal modern research focused on the pharmacological activity of oils extracted from Angelica pubescens, in particular, the potential anti-photoaging effects. Therefore, in the present study, we analyzed the chemical composition of Angelica pubescens oil (AO) and evaluated its bioactivity against photoaging in ultraviolet (UV) -B radiation-induced hairless mice. Overall, we identified and analyzed 93 compounds from the AO by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The top ten compounds were as follows: osthole (44.608%), glutaric acid hexadecyl pent-4-en-1-yl ester (5.758%), α-bisabolol (3.795%), eugenol (3.637%), (Z)-docos-13-enamide (3.286%), (3S,3aR)-3-butyl-3a,4,5,6-tetrahydro-3H-2-benzofuran-1-one (3.043%), m-cresol (2.841%), trans-sesquisabinene hydrate (2.128%), 4-hydroxy-2-methylacetophenone (1.735%), and (Z)-9-pentadecenol (1.509%). Application of AO improved the condition of UV-B radiation-induced damaged skin, and the mechanism of action was found to be related to inhibition of the production of inflammatory cytokines. These results highlight the potential application of AO for the development of skin care products.
Keywords: Angelica pubescens; essential oils; phytoconstituents; skin photoaging; ultraviolet radiation.
© 2018 Wiley-VHCA AG, Zurich, Switzerland.