Due to its content of unsaturated fatty acids and lignans (acting like phytoestrogens) Linum usitatissimum L. oil have been proved several pharmaceutical properties in dermatologic and cosmetic field. The current stage of knowledge concerning the dermatological uses of this oil is:
- photoprotection effect, an well-known propriety, already used by a lot of production pharmaceutical laboratories,
- seboregulating and non-comedogenic effect of linum seeds lignans. The main lignan in flaxseed is secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) which plays a major role in the sebum rate decrease, by being a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor.
- unsaturated fatty acids are essentials for maintain the epidermal physiology. LA is the most abundant fatty acid in the epidermis. Importantly, it is the precursor to ceramides, a major component of the extracellular lipid matrix that forms the stratum corneum permeability barrier (SCPB). [2,3] Additionally, omega 3 fatty acids are involved in prevention of skin cancers.
Our study is advocated the skin anti-photoaging effect of Linum usitatissimum oil. This effect was performed in vivo, on healthy voluntaries, by registering the wrinkles involution with ProDerm Skin Analyzer. We admitted in study 22 females volunteers, ages between 33 an 56 years. The imagistic evaluations were registered after 14 days, 21 days and respectively 28 days of daily application.
The oil content of the studied varietes Lirina 29.9%, Alexin 26.1%, Floriana 22.5%, Florinda 31.3% and Iunia 96 28.9%, determined by Soxhlet method with a Velp block of mineralization. Investigation of fatty acid profile was performed by GC-MS.
