Kojic acid powder is a chelation agent produced by several species of fungi,  especially Aspergillus oryzae,  which has the Japanese common name kojic.

Kojic acid powder is a by-product in the fermentation process of malting rice, for use in the manufacturing of sake, the Japanese rice wine.It is a mild inhibitor of the formation of pigment in plant and animal tissues, and is used in food and cosmetics to preserve or change colors of substances.It forms a bright red complex with ferric ions.

(1) Kojic acid powder is a kind of specialized inhibitor for melanin. It can prevent the tyrosinase activity through synthesizing with copper ion in the cells after it enters skin cells. Kojic acid and its derivative has better inhibitory effect on tyrosinase than any other skin whitening agents. At present it is assigned into various kinds of cosmetics for curing freckles,spots on the skin of old man,pigmentation and acne.

(2) Kojic acid powder can also eliminate free radical, strengthen cell activity of cell and keep the food fresh.

(3) Kojic acid powder also has antibacterial and antifungal properties.

* Cosmetics field

Kojic acid can inhibit the synthesis of tyrosinase, it can strongly inhibit the formation of melanin in the skin. Safe and non-toxic, and will not produce sequelae of white spots.

It can effectively treat freckles, age spots, pigmentation, acne, used to add to other high-end whitening cosmetics.

Kojic acid at a concentration of 20ug / ml can inhibit the activity of 70 to 80% of a variety of tyrosinase (or polyphenol oxidase PPO), and it is generally added in cosmetics at 0.5 to 2.0%.

*Food field

Kojic acid can be used as a food additive, which has the functions of preservation, antiseptic and anti-oxidation. Experiments have shown that kojic acid can inhibit the conversion of sodium nitrite in bacon to carcinogenic nitrosamines, and that the addition of kojic acid to foods will not affect the taste, aroma and texture of foods; kojic acid is also the production of maltol and ethyl maltol raw material.

*Medicine field

Since kojic acid has no mutagenic effect on eukaryotic cells, it can eliminate the free radicals in the human body and enhance the leukocyte dynamics, which is beneficial to human health. Therefore, kojic acid has been used as a raw material for cephalosporin antibiotics. Headache, toothache and local inflammation are ideal for analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.