Melanin is nearly a ubiquitous pigment synthesized by living organisms in the course of hydroxylation and polymerization of organic compounds. Melanins have immense application potentials in the field of agriculture, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries (photoprotection and mosquitocidal activity isolated from Streptomycete). In this study, the halophilic black yeast, Hortaea werneckii produ...

Skin colouration appears to play a pivotal part in facial attractiveness. Skin yellowness contributes to an attractive appearance and is influenced both by dietary carotenoids and by melanin. While both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear, firstly, whether both pigments co...

Investigations were carried out to determine whether the melanin present in the blue and brown eyes were eumelanin, the melanin present in black hair and dark skin, or pheomelanin, the melanin present in red hair and the skin of people with red hair. Our results showed that UV-visible irradiation of blue or brown eye melanin did not produce any superoxide. Irradiation of 51Cr-labelled Ehrlich a...

The effect of an intravenous injection of squid-ink (sepia-melanin) solution on adult mouse spheroid alveolar epithelial cells was observed by the electron microscope. Sepia-melanin particles were seen in all alveolar wall cells examined that seems to suggest the entrance of sepia-melanin particles into the spheroid alveolar epithlial cells from the alveolar blood capillary. In cases of large p...

A novel screening method for melanin biosynthesis inhibitors using Streptomyces bikiniensis NRRL B-1049 as the indicator organism has been developed. Several known compounds, including tyrosinase inhibitors, were found to inhibit melanin production of S. bikiniensis on agar plates. This screening method was applied to fermentation broths of actinomycetes and several cultures with melanin biosyn...

Gingival hyperpigmentation is mostly caused by the physiologic deposition of melanin by melanocytes. Melanin pigmentation of the gingiva is completely benign and does not present a medical problem. In "Gummy Smile" Patients, melanin gingival hyperpigmentation causes an esthetic problem and physiologic disturbances. Many methods are now available for depigmentation of the gingival. This paper re...

On dermoscopy, the amount and location of melanin pigment can be assessed on the basis of its colors, ranging from black, brown to blue-gray. However, accurately recognizing a variety of melanin colors is sometimes difficult because the color of melanin pigment might change according to the character and intensity of lighting, and small melanin particles of different colors might be intermingle...

6'-O-Caffeoylarbutin, an arbutin derivative, is a naturally occurring glucoside of hydroquinone from Vaccinium dunalianum. On anti-melanogenic effect assay, 6'-O-caffeoylarbutin expressed a stronger anti-melanin activity in a dose-dependent manner with about a two-fold more than that of arbutin, but with less toxicity about a two-fold lower than that of arbutin. In addition, melanin synthesis c...

Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) was used to investigate the polarization properties of melanin. Measurements in samples with varying melanin concentrations revealed polarization scrambling, i.e. depolarization. The results indicate that the depolarizing appearance of pigmented structures like, for instance, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is likely to be caused...

Using transmission electron microscopy, we studied the presence of melanin and cell wall thickness of clinical isolates of Sporothrix schenckii obtained from cats, dogs and humans as compared to reference strains. We detected differences regarding presence of the melanin among the clinical isolates of S. schenckii and a correlation between presence of melanin and cell wall thickness.