Potential Cosmetic Applications of Dihydroartemisinin

In recent years, active monomers derived from Chinese herbal medicine and their derivatives have attracted significant attention in the field of skincare product development. Artemisinin and its derivatives, including dihydroartemisinin (DHA), exhibit diverse pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immunomodulatory, and antitumor effects, showing promising therapeutic potential in skin-related diseases. However, systematic studies on artemisinins in cosmetics are lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the cosmetic potential of DHA by investigating its anti-aging, anti-hair loss, antibacterial, whitening, and anti-glycation activities. Results showed that DHA exhibits multiple biological activities: DHA exhibits anti-aging activity by promoting collagen I synthesis in HDF cell, exhibits anti-hair loss effect by modulating VEGF and DKK1 expression in DPC cell, exhibits antibacterial activity against Malassezia furfur, exhibits whitening activity by suppressing melanin synthesis, and exhibits anti-glycation activity by suppressing glycation reactions. Overall, with the broad biological activities, we believe that DHA holds encouraging promise in the cosmetics industry.