Recently, awareness of the relationship between dietary supplementation and skin appearance has increased significantly among consumers as well as in the scientific community and the concept of ingestible skincare is now firmly in the mainstream.

Natural ingredients represent an interesting option for managing beauty and for a good, safe, and environment-friendly approach. From the Mediterranean and Sicilian land, Bionap Srl offers two solutions for beauty from within for skin, and hair: RED ORANGE COMPLEX^TM and ACTRISAVE^TM.

RED ORANGE COMPLEX^TM is obtained from the juice of three pigmented varieties of Sicilian blood oranges, Moro, Tarocco, and Sanguinello. The benefits are:

Free radicals and oxidants may give rise to health concerns if their concentration is not maintained under control. Diet supplementation with natural antioxidants helps the body to reduce oxidative stress, to boost the antioxidant endogenous defences mechanisms and to provide a larger protective margin against its possible consequences linked to skin aging, exposure to solar ultraviolet radiations, smoke, and air pollution.

Bionap R&D has studied a global approach to fight skin aging and photoaging with the intake of 100 mg/day of the standardized RED ORANGE COMPLEX^TM extract containing anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamic acids, flavanones, and ascorbic acid. The activity has been largely demonstrated to be effective in 8 clinical trials improving the skin reaction to UV exposure by decreasing the trans-epidermal water loss, the UV-induced erythema, and the intensity of melanin staining inside dark spots. The total skin antioxidant capacity increases; moreover, the product increases skin moisturization, elasticity, and radiance, together with the improvement of skin resilience and wrinkle depth. The activity on skin elasticity parameters indirectly demonstrated the effect on the extracellular matrix components, and in particular on both collagen and elastic fibres. This positive effect could be also related to the key role of ascorbic acid in collagen biosynthesis and as a collagen structure stabilizer.

ACTRISAVE^TM is a blend of black rice seeds (Oryza sativa L.) and prickly pear flowers (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.) extracts that act synergically from inside against acne and male alopecia.

Black rice is a variety of pigmented rice, rich in nutritional and bioactive components such as anthocyanins which are responsible for its dark colour. Anthocyanins are known as powerful antioxidants with benefice effects on skin and hair and act synergically with prickly pear flower flavonoids (isorhamnetin and derivatives) with anti-inflammatory and moisturizing properties on skin and hair scalp. Together these ingredients lead to a protective effect in sebocytes and hair dermal papilla cells.

One of the most common skin problems is acne, which usually begins in puberty and affects many adolescents and young adults, also it may occur in one’s 30s and 40s. Due to frenetic lifestyles, unhealthy diets, and hormonal factors, acne is increasing in recent years. However, diet can strongly influence hair and skin health and dietary supplements, formulated with natural and sustainable ingredients, can be a good solution for skin and hair, in men and women.

The activity of ACTRISAVE^TM has been evaluated in vitro and a clinical trial is running (250mg/day). The mechanism of action needs to be clarified; however, some literature data suggest that the active compounds of the two extracts have antioxidant action: androgenic alopecia, premature senescence of dermal papilla cells and acne could occur in response to environmental stress together with the associated overproduction of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, the activity could also be related to the inhibition and modulation of 5-alpha-reductase enzyme, which is involved in testosterone metabolism contributing to hair loss and acne. The inhibition of 5-alpha-reductase could, indirectly, stimulate the hair anagen phase and decrease dermal papilla cell apoptosis. In acne skin problems, the extract could decrease sebum production favouring the prevention of acne onset.

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