The white truffle (Tuber Magnatum), a hypogeous fungus known since antiquity and much appreciated for its culinary uses, is the rarest variety of truffles as it grows in some extremely limited areas of Italy.
In the wild, truffles attract animals using volatile compounds. To date, more than 200 different molecules of truffle species have been identified and some of these compounds are able to attract animals due to their similarities with some pheromones, this may explain why the aroma of white truffles is so appreciated.
To investigate the effect that the white truffle phytocomplex can administer to the skin in terms of modulation of gene expression, a microarray analysis was performed on human keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Several groups of genes were modulated with some interesting regulations of the metalloproteinases and the regulation of the proteins of the extracellular matrix, the aquaporins, the vitagenes and the process of degradation of the damaged proteins. The white truffle extract is part of the assets used in epigenetics.
The results obtained with instrumental and clinical dermatology evaluations in 20 volunteers confirmed that white truffle extract can act as multifunctional anti-aging, improving skin elasticity (+ 35%) and long-term hydration (+ 48%) ), reducing wrinkles (- 12.8%) and eye bags (-14%) and also offering a relevant filling effect (+ 0.39 mm).