Hypoxis aurea Lour. is the Thai traditional plant from genus Hypoxidaceae, which has been used to
treat acnes, dark spots and blemish. The yields of the leave extracts by macerations with distilled water (HW)
and 95%(v/v) ethanol (HE) were 25.47 and 4.83% respectively. At the concentration of 0.1 mg/ml, the HE
extract showed superior anti-melanogenesis on B16F10 murine melanoma cells when compared with the HW
(p < 0.05). The HE extracts showed the highest tyrosinase inhibition activity by the modified dopachrome
method, which was comparable with the standard vitamin C (p < 0.05), whereas demonstrated the moderate
free radical scavenging activity by the DPPH assay. This study has suggested that the leave from H. aurea
Lour. extracted by 95%(v/v) ethanol can be applied as a whitening agent for the development of cosmetic
production.