Saishunkan Co., Ltd. Obtains Patent for 'Red Ginseng Extract', Featuring an Innovative Approach to the Popular Whitening Ingredient 'Glutathione'

Saishunkan Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Mashiki-machi, Kamimashiki-gun, Kumamoto; President: Masaaki Nishikawa; hereinafter 'Saishunkan') announced that it has obtained a patent in four areas: a skin external preparation for whitening, a skin external preparation for anti-aging, a skin external preparation for repairing cell damage caused by UV rays—all utilizing Panax ginseng extract ('Red Ginseng extract' subjected to pressurized steam processing) containing rare ingredients 'Ginsenoside Rg3 and Rg5' as active ingredients—and a whitening agent consisting of Ginsenoside Rg5. Notably, this incorporates a highly novel approach on a global scale regarding the whitening ingredient 'Glutathione', which is currently garnering attention in the beauty industry. Instead of the domestic and international mainstream approach of 'supplementing or providing' the ingredient, this approach focuses on 'suppressing its decrease'.

■ Saishunkan's nearly 40 years of knowledge on 'Panax Ginseng'
Saishunkan's encounter with 'Changbai ginseng' occurred nearly 40 years ago. Since then, the company has positioned the 7-year-old fibrous roots of Panax ginseng ('Changbai ginseng') grown in the Changbai Mountains—a location possessing all the conditions for cultivating high-quality ginseng, such as rich soil nutrients and extreme cold—as an excellent material containing abundant active ingredient 'Ginsenosides'. To fully utilize its resilience, which encapsulates the earth's nutrients, the company adopted four different extraction methods modeled after the Kampo processing technique 'Shuji': 'water extraction, oil extraction, post-fermentation extraction, and post-steam processing extraction', successfully obtaining extracts with distinct effects.

The research results, for which a patent was applied in 2019 and obtained in 2026, relate to this 'Red Ginseng', an extract of once-steamed Panax ginseng using water. By reviewing conventional steam processing methods and measuring the extract obtained from Red Ginseng subjected to pressurized steam processing ('autoclaving' with severe steam treatment for 1, 2, and 3 hours at a high temperature of 121°C under strong pressure), the company obtained results that overturned known conventional theories and elucidated new data that had not been reported in the past, thereby unlocking a new aspect of Panax ginseng.

■ An unexpected pairing of the 2,000-year-old traditional 'Panax Ginseng' and the cutting-edge whitening ingredient 'Glutathione'
Among the four patented items, particularly noteworthy is the suppression of UV damage, viewed from the amount of intracellular Glutathione, as a 'skin external preparation for anti-aging utilizing Panax ginseng extract (containing rare ingredients Ginsenoside Rg3 and Rg5) as an active ingredient'.

Glutathione is known as a compound that possesses a 'defensive' role by directly inhibiting the action of 'tyrosinase', an enzyme that produces melanin (the cause of spots), thereby blocking the command to produce melanin. It also has an 'offensive' aspect of reducing already formed black melanin to nearly colorless, lighter melanin. However, Glutathione, which is also an essential component for 'detoxification' from alcohol and drugs, has a determined priority of use within the body. First, 'detoxification in the liver related to life-sustaining activities' is given the highest priority, followed by 'antioxidation to detoxify active oxygen in organs'. Only the surplus Glutathione is allocated for 'whitening', making its priority for 'beauty applications' quite low in reality. In particular, when the skin is exposed to UV rays, a massive amount of Glutathione is wasted on the second priority of 'detoxification' against the highly toxic active oxygen generated inside the 'organ known as the skin' (Figure 1: Control right), further depleting the Glutathione available for 'whitening'.

On the other hand, cells immersed in Red Ginseng extract that underwent pressurized steam processing for 1 or 2 hours showed significantly suppressed Glutathione reduction even when compared to the amount of Glutathione in cells before UV exposure (Figure 1: Control left). This suggests that the Red Ginseng extract, which also possesses high antioxidant power (Figure 2), acted as a 'substitute' for the Glutathione that was originally supposed to be used, thereby minimizing the consumption of 'Glutathione that would otherwise be allocated for removing active oxygen'.

Figure 1: Changes in intracellular Glutathione (GSH) levels in response to UV irradiation
Figure 2: DPPH radical scavenging (antioxidant) effect of pressurized steam-processed 'Red Ginseng' (BG extraction results)

The experiment was validated not only with methanol extraction results commonly used in experiments, but also with highly safe 'BG'* extraction used in many skincare products.

* While more than 90% of BG used in products like cosmetics is derived from petroleum 'naphtha', Domohorn Wrinkle products, which are free from petroleum-derived ingredients, utilize only plant-derived BG.

■ Melanin production inhibitory effect of 'Ginsenoside Rg3 and Rg5' also supports Glutathione
Furthermore, an extremely high melanin production inhibitory effect was also obtained with this extract (Figure 3). This is presumed to be related to the decrease in Ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1, which 'have the role of increasing melanin production', and the increase in Rg3 and Rg5 (Figure 4), which 'have the role of suppressing melanin production', but th