Oral Polypodium leucomotos increases the anti-inflammatory and melanogenic responses of the skin to different modalities of sun exposures: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The effects on the inflammatory and tanning responses of sunlight/UVR of several oral antioxidants are still unknown.

OBJECTIVE: Assess intensity, time course of the inflammatory, and tanning responses to increasing dosages of solar-simulated radiation (SSR) at baseline and after oral supplementation of an extract of Polypodium leucotomos (PLE).

METHODS: Ten healthy subjects underwent phototesting with SSR with a visual and spectrophotometrical assessment of the responses with or without daily oral supplementation of two tablets containing 240 mg of PLE for a total of 15 days.

RESULTS: Polypodium leucotomos supplementation induced a significant increase of the minimal erythema dose (MED), a faster recovery of the inflammation following the delivery of super-erythemal doses, and no significant changes of the minimal melanogenic dose (MMD). Spectrophotometric assessment of the Δa* in test areas exposed to equally doses of SSR did not show differences.

CONCLUSIONS: Polypodium leucotomos supplementation increased the MED and induced a faster recovery of the inflammation and a stronger tanning response with no changes in the melanogenic threshold.