Plants and their extracts are often used due to their numerous beneficial effects in everyday life as well as in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Arnica extract can be used for various medical conditions, it is especially suitable for healing wounds, bruises and swelling, while oral use of arnica extract is also safe under certain restrictions. In cosmetics, arnica extract is used to regenerate and moisturize the skin, it is often found in decorative cosmetics. Their safety plays an important role in the use of cosmetic ingredients. We have to be especially careful with plants and their extracts, as they are often poisonous. In this thesis, we evaluated the safety of arnica extract as a cosmetic ingredient using the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) approach, which determines the toxicological potential of the compound. By using the appropriate literature, we investigated the qualitative and quantitative composition of arnica and its extract. The components were classified into Cramer toxicity classes with assigned TTC values using Toxtree software. Using the structures of compounds and their predicted physicochemical properties, the permeability coefficient and the saturated solubility of the compounds were calculated thus allowing for the estimation of their extent of absorption and systemic exposure. Exposure to compounds with known concentration was calculated using the equation, for compounds with unknown concentration, TTC values were used based on their classification into Cramer classes. In our calculations, we took into account the use of 18 grams of cosmetic product with a content of 0.1% arnica extract on healthy skin. The calculated systemic exposure values were lower than the values for the corresponding TTC classes. Safe daily exposure was determined for certain components of the extract for which we found the highest doses at which no side effects occur in the literature. Systemic exposure values and TTC values were compared with safe daily exposure, which was in all cases 100 times higher than the TTC value and 1000 times higher than the potential systemic exposure value. Arnica extract was therefore labeled as a safe ingredient for dermal use, based on our results and all known toxicological studies. However, we still need to be careful when using it because it can cause many side effects.
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