Holothuroidea (Sea Cucumber): Key to Anti-Aging

Sea cucumbers and their extracts have gained immense popularity and interest among researchers and nutritionists due to their nutritive value, potential health benefits, and use in the treatment of aging. Sea cucumber extracts contain unique components, such as collagen fibres which is glycine, proline and hydroxyproline. These compounds are responsible to make up collagen, which is a protein that can be found approximately 30 % in the human body. Photoaging are changes to skin induced by chronic UVA and UVB exposure. UVB rays are a primary mutagen that can penetrate through the epidermal layer of the skin, resulting in DNA mutations. These mutations. may be clinically related to specific signs of photoaging such as wrinkling and damage of elastin and collagen where the body cannot produce sufficient collagen to replace the amount of collagen that has degraded. I have extensively studied the efficacy of this extract in increasing dermal collagen. In this review, we discuss the anti-aging properties of sea cucumber extracts.