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White and clean skin is everyone's dream, especially women. No wonder many skin care products claim to contain various ingredients to make skin whiter. One of them is a bath scrub with bengkoang extract. But, is it true that jicama can whiten the skin?
Can the skin become whiter?
Each person's skin color is actually determined based on the amount of melanin pigment present in the skin. Melanin is a pigment that is produced by special cells called melanocytes. The amount of this pigment can vary between people. People who have darker skin color have a higher amount of melanin.
How much melanin you have is influenced by genetic factors, the descent from your father and mother. In addition, hormones in the body can also affect your skin color. These hormones are estrogen and progesterone. These two hormones can affect the production of melanocyte cells in the skin.
Other factors from the environment then also influence your skin color. Like sun exposure, exposure to certain chemicals, skin damage, and others can affect melanin production and thus affect your skin tone.
It is this external factor that you can control so that it can make your skin darker or lighter. For example, reduce your sun exposure if you want your skin to look brighter. In addition, you may apply certain chemicals in skin care products to your skin to make your skin brighter.
Is it true that the jicama extract bath scrub makes skin whiter?
Many skin care products, such as bath scrubs, contain jicama extract which is believed to help whiten skin. Jicama itself does contain various important nutrients needed to maintain healthy skin. One of them is high antioxidants in yam which can protect skin cells from free radical damage.
Not only that, jicama also contains vitamin C, vitamin B, and other active ingredients, such as flavonoids and saponins that can help brighten the skin. These ingredients can act as natural sunscreens that protect the skin from the dangers of the sun.
This has also been proven in a study entitled The Exploration of Whitening and Sun Screening Compounds in Jicama Roots (Pachyrhizus erosus). Research conducted by Endang Lukitaningsih proves that the isoflavonoid content in jicama can function as antioxidants and antithyrosins that can protect the skin from the sun and help brighten the skin.
The antithyrosin in jicama works by inhibiting the activity of the tyrosinase enzyme, an enzyme needed in melanin production. This causes the melanin formation process to be inhibited, so that melanin production in the skin can be suppressed. As a result, your skin tone does not darken. In other words, the active substances in jicama can help brighten your skin.
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