Biotechnological Approaches to Producing Natural Antioxidants: Anti-Ageing and Skin Longevity Prospects

Abstract

Plants are the main source of bioactive compounds that can be used for the formulation of cosmetic products. Plant extracts have numerous proven health benefits, among which are anti-ageing and skin-care properties. However, with the increased demand for plant-derived cosmetic products, there is a crucial prerequisite for establishing alternative approaches to conventional methods to ensure sufficient biomass for sustainable production. Plant tissue culture techniques, such as in vitro root cultures, micropropagation, or callogenesis, offer the possibility to produce considerable amounts of bioactive compounds independent of external factors that may influence their production. This production can also be significantly increased with the implementation of other biotechnological approaches such as elicitation, metabolic engineering, precursor and/or nutrient feeding, immobilization, and permeabilization. This work aimed to evaluate the potential of biotechnological tools for producing bioactive compounds, with a focus on bioactive compounds with anti-ageing properties, which can be used for the development of green-label cosmeceutical products. In addition, some examples demonstrating the use of plant tissue culture techniques to produce high-value bioactive ingredients for cosmeceutical applications are also addressed, showing the importance of these tools and approaches for the sustainable production of plant-derived cosmetic products.

Keywords: anti-ageing; antioxidants; biotechnology; callus; plant tissue culture; skin.

Figure 1

Skin anatomical structure (with three distinct layers: epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis) and key roles (the skin anatomical structure schema was adopted from Kobayashi et al., (2020) and Nielson et al., (2021) [13,14].

Figure 2

Main biotechnological approaches available for enhancing the production of bioactive compounds using plant cell culture systems.