The State of Antioxidant Research Viewed Through the Lens of the Inner Beauty Era

The goal that humankind pursues in the twenty-first century is to live long-that is, longevity.Yet what is sought is not mere length of life but 'healthy' longevity: the realization of longevity in its fullest sense.Consumers today are accordingly moving beyond the passive treatment of disease toward a wellness-oriented pattern of consumption that actively pursues the maintenance of health and the enhancement of quality of life. 1 One of the central pillars in realizing such longevity is anti-aging.Aging is explained by the so-called oxidative-stress (free-radical) theory of aging, in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) inflict oxidative damage on biological macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and DNA, and the accumulation of this damage leads to declining cellular function and, ultimately, cell death.Antioxidant activity-the scavenging of ROS or the regulation of their generation-therefore constitutes the cornerstone of anti-aging.Against this backdrop, the inner beauty market-in which antioxidant functional compounds are consumed through the diet-has begun to take shape in earnest.The term "inner beauty," a compound of inner and beauty, denotes the simultaneous cultivation of health and beauty through dietary and lifestyle habits, rather than the tending of outward appearance alone; it has more recently come to signify a marketing-science hybrid paradigm in which skin health is improved from within through oral ingestion, rather than through topical application.According to Euromonitor, the global inner beauty market expanded from USD 85 billion in 2020 to USD 98 billion in 2024, 2 representing a considerable rate of growth.In this commentary, we examine the characteristics of representative antioxidant compounds that command attention in the skin health category of the inner beauty industry, review the emerging technological trends driving market expansion, and offer recommendations for sustainable growth. REPRESENTATIVE ANTIOXIDANT COMPOUNDS IN INNER BEAUTYThe compounds most frequently cited within the antioxidant category of the inner beauty market include vitamins C and E, coenzyme Q10, polyphenols, and carotenoids.3,4 Among the vitamins, C and E are the most prominent.Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a water-soluble antioxidant that acts both as a cofactor for the prolyl/lysyl hydroxylases involved in collagen