Cosmetics are the care substances used to enhance the appearance of the human body. Skin cosmetics act on the epidermis or its outermost layers, but they are of great significance from the standpoint of function and appearance (Schneider et al., 2005). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates cosmetics, defines cosmetics as "intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions. The "functional cosmetics" as determined by No 2. Article 2 of the Cosmetics law of Korea shall refer, Cosmetics having the function of preventing melanin pigmentation into the skin, thereby preventing the spots and freckles to promote the whitening of the skin.
Cosmetic preparations normally contain 5 – 50% fat-like constituents (oils, fats, and waxes), 1 – 10% emulsifiers, and 50 – 90% hydrophilic constituents (water and water-soluble ingredients) (Martin et al., 1980). In association to the cosmetic ingredients, various therapeutic agents for the treatment of acne vulgaris, tyrosinase inhibition, anti-aging, anti-oxidants are added.
Therefore, many researchers have tried to develop therapeutic agents for acne with no side effects but high antibacterial activity (Nam et al., 2003; Kang et al., 2009; Niyomkam et al., 2010). The search of functional ingredients applicable towards skin-care products, materials from natural resources have become of great interest (Wang et al., 2008).
New agents are required to treat the acne vulgaris, dandruffs, cellular aging, melanin biosynthesis and cellular oxidation which may have the functional properties for cosmetics. There is emergence to use natural compounds for the treatment rather synthetic compounds and chemicals. This study emphasize for the identification of natural products from soil bacteria that may have activity for the treatment of skin related diseases like acne vulgaris, dandruff, melasma, skin-aging in broad sense.
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