Synthesis and Characterization of Cosmetic Grade Ionic Liquids and Their Application As Skin Whitening Agents

Purpose Recent developments emphasize the ready conversion of known active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into novel phases like ionic liquids (known green solvents) to obtain striking features such as improved solubilities and dissolution rates. This dissolution enhancement is important for the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of the drug. For this purpose, an active cation can be combined with an active anion to synthesize dual functionality liquid. Methods In this work, we synthesized two novel ionic liquids, cholinium arbutinate (IL-1) and cholinium glutathionate (IL-2), from cosmetic grade components and evaluated their prospective applications as skin whitening. For this purpose, two known whitening acids, arbutin and glutathione, were neutralized with choline hydroxide. Synthesized ionic liquids were characterized via NMR and FTIR as well as evaluated for their potent biological properties involving antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxicity, and de-pigmenting activity. Results The results suggested that synthesized ionic liquids can be used as skin whitening agents as they can prevent bacterial attack, protect from cell oxidation, and also exhibit cell compatibility. Furthermore, these novel synthesized compounds were observed to have de-pigmenting activity. Conclusion The prepared whitening agents would not cause any harm to the skin and would inhibit the growth of bacteria and oxidation of cells, thus preventing cell damage.