Edible Bird’s Nest, an Asian Health Food Supplement, Possesses Skin Lightening Activities: Identification of N-Acetylneuraminic Acid as Active Ingredient

Edible bird’s nest (EBN; Yan Wo), or cubilose, is originated from the salivary secretion of Aerodramus fuciphagus. In Asia, EBN is famous for its unproven skin lightening function. Here, we aim to reveal the active ingredients of EBN responsible for skin lightening function. Three major fractions were isolated from EBN water extract by chromatography using LC-MS/MS, bioactivities of these isolated fractions were analyzed by assays of tyrosinase, melanocytes and 3D human skin model, from which, N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), the second isolated fraction showed an inhibition effect on tyrosinase activity in a dose-dependent manner. The IC50 of tyrosinase originated from mushroom and human was 16.93 mM and 0.10 mM respectively. Furthermore, only EBN with higher content of NANA (e.g. White and Red EBN), but not EBN with less NANA (e.g. Grass EBN), showed promising skin lightening function. This is the first report to reveal NANA being an active ingredient of EBN on skin lightening function.