What's Ascorbyl Phosphate?

Ascorbyl Phosphate Magnesium (magnesium L-ascorbyl 2-phosphate, APM) and Ascorbyl Phosphate Sodium (sodium L-ascorbyl 2-phosphate, APS) are stable vitamin C ascorbic acid, AsA) derivatives. APM and APS are;

• stable under atmospheric condition
• safe and effective quenchers of intradermal reactive oxygen species
• physiologically more efficacious than native vitamin C
• capable of improving various skin problems

Various Functions

APM/S have been mainly utilized as an active ingredient of whitening cosmetics. Recent investigations show us various possibilities to utilize them as multi functioning, stable 'provitamin C'. Intradermal and extradermal protective effects against UV-generated radicals suggest the use for UV-care products. As clinical studies strongly support, acne, being re-identified as a radical disease, is another candidate that we should apply AP for. Enhancement of collagen synthesis helps the recovery of wound and burn, in which also reduction of active oxygen species have an important role.

Ascorbate Enriching

AP enriches intradermal ascorbate more effectively than ascorbate itself or other ascorbate derivatives. Based on the observation that activities of hydrolyzing enzymes drastically varied in animals, experiments with human skin sample was necessary to verify the enriching capability. Tiny skin biopsy samples prepared from volunteers were divided into three equal parts and used for the comparison of ascorbate, APS and ascorbyl 2-glucoside !AG". Hydrophilic ointment containing 20 mg/g of each substance was placed onto epidermis side of skin sample. After incubations for two to six hours, the content of ascorbate and AP/AG was determined. The ascorbate enrichment by APS was outstanding: At 6 hr the 'free' ascorbate content in APS-fed skin was eight times higher than that of ascorbate-fed and five times higher than that of AG-fed.

Skin Protection against UV

A new ESR method was developed to directly detect the hydroxyl radical generation in skin. Even though the ESR signals were rather weak and complicated compared with those in homogeneous solutions, easily distinguishable hydroxyl radical-derived peaks were identified !red triangles". This method seems a very good way to observe the ongoing events in native skin. Hairless mouse skin was pretreated with 200 mM AsA, APS, or AG for two hours, and ESR spin-trap measurements were carried out under UVB irradiation. As seen in the spectrum, ascorbate quenched hydroxyl radicals almost completely, however, the amount of ascorbyl radicals "yellow triangle" was significant, which may cause another harm in skin. APS reduced the radical amount effectively. AG was less effective. APS prevents lipid peroxidation caused by UV irradiation. A hairless mouse skin sample was irradiated with UVB at an energy of 20 KJ/m2 after a two-hour treatment with 20 mM AsA, APS, or AG in the medium. After a post-incubation for twenty two "22" hours in the medium containing no AsA or derivatives, the amount of intradermal peroxidized lipid was determined by thiobarbituric acid method. The UVB irradiation increased the amount of TBARS by 1.8 fold. Pretreated with 20 mM AsA, TBARS remained within the same level as the non-irradiated control. The inhibitory effect of APS was even higher; the TBARS amount was less than that of control.