Discover an innovative way to fight wrinkles
Aging is a natural process. Visible signs of skin aging are wrinkles, age spots, dull, dry, and rough skin. Collagen is the supportive protein in our skin, acting like a scaffold giving the skin a firm structure.
Oxidation, glycation of collagen damage the connective tissue and leads to a continuous decline in collagen mass during aging, resulting ultimately in formation of wrinkles and sagging skin.
Oxidation, glycation, and cleavage of the collagen backbone can cause severe tissue damages, which results a decline of collagen mass. This kind of weakening of the connective skin tissue is ultimately a major cause for the formation of wrinkles and sagging skin. Our body is able to synthesis collagen, but the production decreases with age.
Restoring the collagen present in the inner layer of the skin counteracts this effect. Consumers today have a large choice of market products containing collagen, mainly in a hydrolyzed form for better absorption. It is mainly sourced from animals or is of marine origin. Another possible approach is to stimulate the body own collagen production, instead of providing the body with the exogenous collagen building blocks.
There is an innate regeneration process called longevity pathway known to regulate aging. There are two important proteins involved in this process, AMPK and FOXO.
Aging as well as nutritional overload exert potent inhibitory effect on AMPK, which impacts FOXO and leads to cell damages.
This has an impact on the aging process. The good news is that these two protagonists can be activated under certain conditions, improving hereby collagen repair, cellular defense, and oxidative stress resistance.
Caloric restriction for instance activates AMPK, which then again triggers the switching on of the key regulator FOXO. This results ultimately in increased collagen repair and many other beneficial actions in the skin.
We have extensively studied the biochemical processes in cells in relation to caloric restriction. One particular plant, the Moldavian Dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica), caught our attention.
This plant belongs to the mint family and has a pleasant lemon-balm smell. The leaves and flowers are used for tea in Europe and are traditionally used to treat coronary disorders in Central Asia.
DracoBelle™ Nu is the extract made from this antioxidant-rich plant. When running bioassay trials, this plant source was able to increase FOXO and AMPK activity by three- respectively fourfold. This means that it mimics the same positive effects as of caloric restriction or exercising as described earlier.
When investigating further, results revealed that DracoBelle™ Nu also increased the level of collagen gene expression significantly resulting in increased collagen content in aged skin tissues. This confirms that this ingredient has an impact on the longevity pathway, boosting thereby collagen production.
Following to these findings, a clinical study was run to see if there are any noticeable effects on the skin. The participants consumed daily 200 mg DracoBelle™ Nu dissolved in a beverage of their choice for a period of 2 months.
Skin hydration, elasticity and density were measured using dermatological devices. The results were very satisfying, skin hydration and elasticity improved significantly, as well as skin density compared to the initial condition.
The volunteers scored their satisfaction levels very high. Close to 95% felt better in their skin and they noticed that their skin moisture had improved. The results of this study has been published in Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health (JCMPHR 2(7), 2021).
DracoBelle™ Nu is a unique, vegan, anti-aging botanical active allowing an innovative approach to fight accelerated skin aging.
Contact food@mibellebiochemistry.com to get a tasty gummy sample and more information!
