A few farmers might soon grow rumex, now considered a weed, thanks to Saskatoon company that discovered an extract from it can be used to lighten skin.
Fytokem investigates the chemical properties of plants native to the Prairies, with an eye for novel commercial opportunities in human health and beauty products.
Rumex, a wild plant related to buckwheat, is often found in ditches in wet areas.
“It’s a plant you’d recognize on the side of the road. In winter, it’s quite brown and about four feet high,” said John Schaw, Fytokem president.
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If the skin toner takes off as Fytokem expects, the company will have to start cultivating rumex to get a steady supply.
The product refined from rumex has been given the name Tyrostat. It protects against certain enzymes in the skin that form melanin, the natural pigment in humans.
Reduces age spots
Fytokem says Tyrostat can lighten skin, prevent patchy tanning and reduce age spots.
“It is not a particularly big thing in these parts, but in Asia, the lighter the color of your skin, the closer you are to nobility,” Schaw said. There also could be a market in North America and Europe in the population with dark skin color.
The product will go into cosmetics. The same effect is sought with an existing product called hydroquinone, but Schaw said it has side effects that Tyrostat does not.
Because it is considered a cosmetic, not a health product, Tyrostat will not have to go through stringent federal health testing.
But it is undergoing industry clinical trials in the United States.
“There is a company so excited about it they said they’d pay for the clinical trials because they want to use it,” Schaw said.
About 45 cosmetic companies around the world have requested samples for testing, he added.
The potential world market for safe, effective plant-based skin toner is estimated to be more than $100 million a year, Fytokem said.
