Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Ethnopharmacology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1595534

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Application of Network Analysis in Ethnopharmacology and Food Nutrition Volume IIView all 6 articles

Discovery of insect Blaps rhynchopetera Fairmaire extracts with anti-tyrosinase activity and anti-melanin deposition

Provisionally accepted
La-Mei  ZhangLa-Mei Zhang1Kaixun  CaoKaixun Cao2Xizhe  YangXizhe Yang1Shengwen  ZhouShengwen Zhou3Chengye  WangChengye Wang1Yifan  ChenYifan Chen3Chengchen  ZhangChengchen Zhang3Min  ZhaoMin Zhao1*Lei  ShiLei Shi1*Qiumin  LuQiumin Lu3*
  • 1Institute of Highland Forest Science, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
  • 2Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3Kunming Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Blaps rhynchopetera Fairmaire is a medicinal insect that has been used for a long time by minority ethnic groups in Yunnan, China, due to its immunomodulatory function. However, its potential applications in cosmetics have not been reported. Methods: In vitro experiments were used to verify whether the extracts of Blaps rhynchopetera Fairmaire (EBR) have the effect of inhibiting TYR activity and eliminating melanin deposition. Subsequently, in vivo experiments were conducted to verify further the potential application of the EBR in whitening. To explore the whitening components of the EBR, we employed UHPLC-Q-TOF MS to identify the compounds present in the EBR and utilized network pharmacology to compare them with the genes involved in whitening in the database, thereby obtaining the intersection of compound targets and whitening targets. Then, protein-protein interaction network analysis, gene ontology enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis were carried out to explore the main components of the whitening effect of the EBR. Further, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation were used to verify the correlation between the main components of the EBR and the essential target molecules. Results: These studies have found that the EBR exhibits anti-oxidation, TYR-inhibiting activity, and the elimination of melanin deposition. Subsequently, 1538 metabolites were identified by UHPLC-Q-TOF MS analysis, indicating that EBR is a rich source of bioactive compounds.Among them, 82 kinds of phenols and flavonoids may be derived from external enrichment or selfsynthesis. Network pharmacology revealed 41 genes related to pigmentation and TYR inhibition. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation confirmed that myricetin, luteolin, apigenin and quercetin have a high binding affinity with TYR, which may regulate melanin production by inhibiting TYR activity. Conclusions: In this study, we identified the primary whitening active ingredients of Blaps rhynchopetera Fairmaire and utilized network pharmacology and molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the mechanism underlying the whitening effect of EBR. This work reveals that insect extraction may have broad application prospects in the preparation of cosmetics. To our knowledge, this is the first report identifying the flavonoids quercetin, luteolin, myricetin, and apigenin as whitening-active components in insects.

Keywords: Blaps rhynchopetera fairmaire, TYR inhibitory, Cosmetics, Network Pharmacology, molecular docking

Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Cao, Yang, Zhou, Wang, Chen, Zhang, Zhao, Shi and Lu. 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:
Min Zhao, Institute of Highland Forest Science, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
Lei Shi, Institute of Highland Forest Science, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
Qiumin Lu, Kunming Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China

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.