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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem.

Sec. Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1577871

This article is part of the Research TopicBioactive Natural Products for Health: Isolation, Structural Elucidation, Biological Evaluation, Structure-activity Relationship, and Mechanism - Volume IIView all 7 articles

Citrus aurantifolia Essential Oil: Antiaging Potential Through Integrated In Vitro and In Silico Studies

Provisionally accepted
Yasmin ElkhawasYasmin Elkhawas1Mahmoud A El HassabMahmoud A El Hassab2Omkulthom Al KamalyOmkulthom Al Kamaly3Ahmed NegmeldinAhmed Negmeldin4Wagdy Mohamed EldehnaWagdy Mohamed Eldehna5*Nada MostafaNada Mostafa6
  • 1Future University in Egypt, New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
  • 2King Salman International University, South Sinai, Egypt
  • 3Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 4College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
  • 5Faculty of Pharmacy, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt
  • 6Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Beni Suef, Egypt

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Natural skincare products and cosmetic preparations have gained popularity among consumers in recent years, prompting cosmetic companies to develop more natural offerings. These products often incorporate plant extracts known for their anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, and depigmentation properties. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, this study examined the volatile compounds in both fresh and dry Citrus aurantifolia (key lime) fruit essential oils. The oils' antiaging and antioxidant activities were assessed through in vitro anti-collagenase and anti-elastase assays. In vitro analysis revealed good inhibition of elastase and collagenase enzymes by fresh key lime essential oil, with IC50 values of 145.02 and 63.97 µg/mL, respectively, compared to positive controls (daidzein for collagenase, piroxicam for elastase), in comparison to dry key lime oil (IC50 = 223.14 and 109.57 µg/mL, respectively).The antioxidant activity of the oils was evaluated using the ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) radical scavenging assay.The fresh key lime oil demonstrated stronger antioxidant activity (37.76 ± 0.80 µM Trolox equivalent (TE)/g) compared to the dry key lime oil (27.76 ± 1.11 µM TE/g), suggesting that it retains more bioactive compounds essential for radical scavenging activity. Additionally, molecular docking was performed to analyze interactions between the main metabolites and the targeted enzymes active sites. Molecular docking analysis showed excellent binding scores for the three main metabolites. In conclusion, the anti-aging potential of fresh key lime essential oil may be attributed to its major compounds. These findings suggest that key lime essential oil could be a promising natural ingredient for anti-aging skincare formulations.

Keywords: 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), Antiaging, anticollagenase, Anti-elastase, Citrus aurantifolia, GC/MS, Key lime

Received: 16 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Elkhawas, El Hassab, Al Kamaly, Negmeldin, Eldehna and Mostafa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Wagdy Mohamed Eldehna, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material