Students:
Rahaf Zamel
Nosayba Aldabet
Hala Abu-Alrub
Supervisor
Dr.Ramzi Shawahna
Abstract
Licorice ‘‘Glycyrrhiza plant'' which means “sweet root.” belongs to the family Leguminosae. It possesses antibacterial, antioxidant, antimalarial, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory and anti-hyper glycemic properties. In our study we aimed to examine and evaluate moisturizing effect of licorice oil based cream on skin in comparison with other moisturizer creams that are available in the market. This was an open-label randomized placebo controlled cross-over comparative clinical trial. The study populations were healthy individuals with normal skin. Four different areas on each volunteer’s skin were designated for each formulation (a) base alone, b) test formulation containing licorice oil, c) Johnson, and d) Olay). Skin areas were chosen away from the sensitive skin areas like the face or areas frequently washed. The reduction in R1 values of the licorice root oil cream show improvement in the skin ability to return back to its original state after application of stress, it mean better elasticity. The value of R2 decreased markedly in the first week of study and continue to decrease, however, a less change was seen when applied licorice root oil. We found that our formulation has the potential of moisturizing the skin, also whitening it. Future studies need to be conducted for a longer duration of time to assess if these improvements are statistically significant, and to larger number of volunteers to investigate the significance of our study.
