PLANT TISSUE CULTURES AS SOURCES OF INGREDIENTS FOR SKIN CARE APPLICATIONS

In order to support their sessile lifestyle, plants evolved sophisticated defence mechanisms that result in the synthesis of a vast spectrum of chemical compounds. Plants have been the main source of natural ingredients for human use since ancient times and nowadays, with the development of plant tissue culture techniques, remarkable progresses towards the production of bioactive compounds on an industrial scale have been achieved, as plant tissue cultures represent standardized, contaminant-free, and bio-sustainable systems. In cosmetics, particularly as skin care applications, plant tissue cultures represent a valuable and promising source of active ingredients with a wide range of biological activities. While plant cells, grown as undifferentiated suspension cultures, could be a valuable source of active molecules which are normally synthesized in low amounts in differentiated tissues, hairy roots or somatic embryo cultures, due to their more specialized nature, synthetize compounds that can address more specific functions in skin care; although widespread in the pharmaceutical industry, plant tissue culture technology is not yet very common in the cosmetic field. The aim of the present article is to focus on the successful research accomplishments in the development of plant tissue cultures-derived active ingredients for cosmetic applications.