Evaluation of Antioxidant and Anti-Melanogenic Activity of Different Extracts of Aerial Parts of N. Sintenisii in Murine Melanoma B16F10 Cells

Nepeta (Lamiaceae) is an important genus with beneficial medicinal properties. N. sintenisiiBornm. has been used in folk medicine of Iran to cure various diseases. We investigated theanti-melanogenesis effects of n-hexane, MeOH, CH2Cl2, n-BuOH, EtOAc, and H2O extractsisolated from the plant in B16 melanoma cells. Various assays including cytotoxicity, mushroomtyrosinase inhibition, inhibition of cellular tyrosinase, melanin content, the amount of reactiveoxygen species and western blotting were done to assess the plant activities on melanogenesisinhibition. All extracts of N. sintenisii could significantly reduce both tyrosinase activityand the cellular melanin content. Reactive oxygen species were also significantly decreasedfollowing the treatment of cell with n-BuOH and EtOAc extracts with no cytotoxicity. The plantsignificantly decreased the amount of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor proteins.Collectively, N. sintenisii inhibited melanin synthesis and tyrosinase activity in B16 melanomacells with no cytotoxic effects. Hence, it might merit further investigations for elucidation of anti-hyperpigmentation agents.