Abstract: Curcumol isolated from the oil of Oleum curcumae was identified to be inhibited melanin in B16 cells.In order to modification its structure,eight derivatives of curcumol were designed and synthesized,of which 2,3,5a,5b,6 are new compounds.As the result of screening,5b and 6 showed the stronger inhibitory content on melanin than curcumol,but there were no significant differences.According to Grphpad prism software analysis,their P  values were all greater than 0.05,which were 0.80 and 0.22,respectively.The result of the melanin content measurement indicated that epoxidation followed by the hydrolyzation and esteration of the exocyclic double bond of curcumol could increase inhibitory content on melanin in B16 cells.

Key words: curcumol, structural modification, cell B16, inhibition of melanin content, whitening effect