Whitening Pills

• Recently, some oral medications are claimed to induce skin depigmentation. Such medications include glutathione or arbutin containing pills. Glutathione is known to inhibit melanin synthesis in the test tube, but data confirming its efficacy as a skin whitener in human are lacking in medical journals.
• On the other hand, the safety of the long-term use of glutathione pills is not well known.
• We do not recommend glutathione pills unless their efficacy and safety be shown in well-controlled trials.
• The efficacy of arbutin as a melanogenesis inhibitor is questioned by recent studies. On the other hand, data regarding the safety of oral arbutin are lacking. Since arbutin is a phenol, it is possible that its oral use could result in the formation of cytotoxic and mutagenic quinones which could act as carcinogens in the human body. We do not recommend arbutin containing pills for skin whitening.

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