Melanin in the eyes
The pigment melanin is also contained in our eyes. There it is responsible for the different eye colors, depending on the type of composition and the strength of the pigments. At birth, most newborns have light blue eyes because the color pigment has not yet been produced in sufficient quantities.
The iris is initially unpigmented and therefore the coloration is first produced by the pigment epithelium at the back of the iris. Only through the stimulation of the melanin-producing cells is enough melanin produced over time to color the eye. The genetic inheritance also plays an important role in the development of eye color.
Depending on how much melanin accumulates in the iris, grey, blue, yellow, green, brown and even black eye colors are produced. The eye color usually corresponds to the skin type. Thus blond haired and lighter skin types have rather blue eyes, dark haired mostly brown eyes.
Melanin in tablet form
Melanin is also present as an artificially produced substance in tablet form. The tablets often contain the amino acids that the body needs to produce melanin. So the production of melanin can be stimulated by the body.
The most common use of the tablets is to support the browning of the skin. The supply of melanin as tablets is intended to make the skin tan faster and also naturally. Furthermore, it is hoped that the tablets will help to maintain the hair‘s own color. So they are also sold as a product against gray hair. There are different opinions about the tablets regarding their effectiveness.
Melanin against gray hair
Grey hair is caused by a lack of melanin in the hair cells. As a result of increasing age or reduced production of melanin, the hair color fades. However, other factors also contribute to the graying of hair, such as acidosis, constant coloring in the past and psychological stress.
There are various remedies for gray hair, which can stop the graying process or restore the hair to its original color. For example, there are re-pigmentation creams that replicate the melanin in the hair. They react with the air bubbles in the hair, which have accumulated there instead of the melanin and then let the hair look pigmented again.
Melanin is produced from the amino acid tyrosine by the enzyme tyrosinase. It is suspected that with age there is an increasing lack of tyrosine and of the important enzyme, which can also be damaged by hydrogen peroxide, for example. According to this, there are different agents that contain amino acids to restore the melanin production.
Furthermore, there are approaches to administer the enzyme tyrosinase to maintain melanin production. The key against gray hair is melanin. However, the researchers have not yet found an effective method to maintain the melanin content in hair in old age.
There are approaches that hair care products containing substances similar to the hormone melanin can stimulate the melanocytes to produce melanin. Previous products against gray hair, only envelop the hair and let the hair appear in color again only briefly.
