Calenduloside E (3-O-[beta-d-glucuronopyranosyl]oleanolic acid), the glucuronic acid conjugate of oleanolic acid, is a triterpenoid saponin present in a wide variety of Aralia plants, in which the content of calenduloside E is about 0.02%. A number of studies of the biological activity of calenduloside E has been reported since its first isolation by Kasprzyk and Wojciechowski. These studies indicate that calenduloside E has hypoglycemic activity and is potentially useful in the treatment of diabetes and morbid obesity. It may also be useful as a spermicidal contraceptive and as an antiarrhythmic agent. Because of its wide-ranging biological activity and low toxicity, the potential clinical use of calenduloside E has attracted much attention in recent years. Furthermore, its active metabolite, oleanolic acid, has been shown to possess analgesic, antiinflammatory, hepatoprotective, antitumor and hypolipidemic effects as well as having hypoglycemic activity.

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin, which exists in two different forms in nature: vitamin K1 (phylloquinone or phytonadione) and vitamin K2 (menaquinones), a feature of which is a long polyprenyl lateral chain. Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is a form of vitamin K2 that occurs naturally in some animal-derived and is available as an ingredient of dietary supplements. A novel method of marking five different cis/trans isomers of vitamin K2 (MK-7) (including 6-CIS form) in dietary supplements recently was developed and validated.

Retinyl propionate is a synthetic derivative of a Vitamin A. Upon topical application, retinyl propionate is hydrolyzed by esterases to retinol, which is ultimately converted to retinoic acid. In mouse models, retinyl propionate induced epidermal thickening in mouse tail and promoted collagen formation in UV-irradiated mice. These results encouraged clinical trials of retinyl palmitate against photoaging. Topical retinyl propionate cream (0.15%) did not demonstrate any statistically significant improvement over placebo, but in later studies of combinations of retinyl propionate with climbazole or niacinamide improvements in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and age spots were demonstrated.