BUTTERFLY PEA FLOWER (Clitoria ternatea): A NATURAL WONDER FOR COLLAGEN ENHANCEMENT AND SKIN RADIANCE

Sindhu Priya Jasti; Devi Shankar Gone; Unnisa Iffath; Triveni Itharaju; Lavanya Jilla

doi:10.37022/jiaps.v11i2.931

Jasti Sindhu Priya CMR College of Pharmacy, Kandlakoya, Medchal Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Gone Devi Shankar CMR College of Pharmacy, Kandlakoya, Medchal Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Iffath Unnisa CMR College of Pharmacy, Kandlakoya, Medchal Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Itharaju Triveni CMR College of Pharmacy, Kandlakoya, Medchal Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Jilla Lavanya CMR College of Pharmacy, Kandlakoya, Medchal Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

DOI https://doi.org/10.37022/jiaps.v11i2.931

Abstract

Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and a large number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources. Skin aging does not unfold as a single biological event;it is the cumulative result of two overlapping deteriorative processes that ultimately converge on the same molecular outcome. The first, intrinsic aging, is governed by internal programmes: telomere shortening at each cell division, replicative senescence of dermal fibroblasts, progressive mitochondrial inefficiency, and epigenetic silencing of collagen gene promoters. The second, extrinsic photoaging, is driven primarily by cumulative ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure, which generates a sustained chemical oxidative assault on the dermis. This review consolidates available preclinical, in vitro, and in vivo evidence regarding the phytochemistry, molecular pharmacology, and cosmeceutical potential of Clitoria ternatea L. (butterfly pea flower). The flowers of C. ternatea concentrate an exceptional chemical repertoire: polyacylated anthocyanins (ternatins A₁-D₃), quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-glucoside flavonols, the triterpenoid taraxerol, gallic acid and catechin phenolics, cystine-knot cyclotide peptides, and saponins. Clitoria ternatea offers robust, preclinically validated multi-mechanistic anti-aging activity. Its structurally unique ternatin anthocyanin chemistry, well-documented traditional safety record, and unusually broad pharmacological target profile collectively position it as a high-priority botanical active for next-generation evidence-based cosmeceutical development.

Keywords: Clitoria ternatea, anthocyanins, Butterfly Pea Flower, quercetin, anti-oxidant, anti-aging activity

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