Ceylon spinach: A promising crop for skin hydrating products

•Ceylon spinach polysaccharide was investigated for skin hydrating application.•Quality control and specification of Ceylon spinach polysaccharide was proposed.•Ceylon spinach polysaccharide was none-irritated in the human volunteers.•Its moisturizing was 7-28% better than the control untreated skin.•Ceylon spinach is a new promising crop for cosmetic industrial.

Ceylon spinach, or Basella alba, is a mucilaginous vegetable crop having high economic, nutritional and medicinal value. It has long been used in traditional skin remedies, although to date few reports have focused on the scientific basis of its skin hydrating properties, or protocols for extract quality control. Extracts of this crop were therefore prepared, and evaluated for their efficacy towards skin hydration. An extraction time of 3 h provided the highest yield, and maximum total polysaccharide content, with the following extract specifications: yield (2.93 ± 0.83%), moisture content (12.51 ± 0.52%), total polysaccharide and total tannin contents (0.37 ± 0.00 mg glucose/g and 4.18 ± 0.09 μg tannic acid/g, respectively), astringency (245.86 ± 0.05 mg tannic acid/g), solubility and swelling capacity in water (0.02 ± 0.00% and 4.17 ± 0.58%, respectively), viscosity (1541.33 ± 22.12 cps) and water and oil absorption capacities (1.13 ± 0.03 g/g and 2.82 ± 0.12 g/g, respectively). Evaluation in 22 Thai volunteers indicated that the extract caused no skin irritation, and that skin hydrating efficacy (0.05-0.10%) was 7-28% better than the control in the short term (0-210 min; Corneometer® CM 825). These results highlight the potential for B. alba usage in healthcare products including pharmaceutics and cosmetics, and provide useful guidelines for extract preparation, quality control, standardization and specifications for industrial processing.