Abstract:

The occurrence of sensitive skin has close relationship with the overactivity of transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 （TRPV1） and impaired skin barrier function. This study aims to establish a damaged skin barrier model and irritation model using physical and chemical irritants and to evaluate the skin soothing and repair effect of Pogostemon cablin leaf extract, so as to explore timely measures to alleviate the sensitive skin problem. The clinical skin soothing and skin repairing effects of Pogostemon cablin leaf extract on sensitive skin have been systematically studied, using tape-tripping as physical skin damage model, and chemical probe, phenoxyethanol or capsaicin, as skin irritation model, combined with subjective self-assessment, objective non-invasive skin physiological measurements and image acquisition with Tissue Viability Imager. The results demonstrate that the addition of 1% Pogostemon cablin leaf extract in a mask can significantly reduce the burning and stinging sensation of the skin induced by phenoxyethanol （p<0.05）. After using a cream containing 1% Pogostemon cablin leaf extract for 30 minutes, 1 hour and 2 hours, the transepidermal water loss （TEWL） of the damaged skin is significantly reduced （p<0.05）, indicating that the skin repair is accelerated. The images acquired by TiVi 700 are visually compared and demonstrate the effect of 1% Pogostemon cablin leaf extract on reducing skin erythema.

Key words: Pogostemon cablin leaf extract, sensitive skin, skin barrier, tape-stripping, skin irritation