Results: Shallots from Phayao exhibited low cytotoxicity and a high tyrosinase inhibitory effect compared with shallot from other cultivation sites. Therefore, Shallots from Phayao were selected to prepare optimized shallot extract, AA 20-4-40. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the extract were not observed in human dermal fibroblast cells treated with the extract at 1–10 mg/ml.The extract also decreased both mushroom tyrosine activity and intracellular tyrosinase activity in B16F10 cells. In addition, the extract significantly decreased melanin content in cells.