In our efforts to find new skin lightening agents, piceatannol (PICE) was investigated for its antioxidative property and ability to inhibit melanogenesis. In this study, PICE's effect on inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase, and tyrosinase inhibiting activity and melanin content were assessed utilizing the B16F10 melanoma cell (B16 cell) culture system. Results indicated that PICE has a strong antityrosinase activity (IC(50)=1.53 microM). To evaluate the relative efficacy of PICE compared to other tyrosinase inhibitors, its inhibitory effect was compared and showed that PICE was significantly stronger than kojic acid (IC(50)=50.1 microM) and resveratrol (IC(50)=63.2 microM). Furthermore, PICE was shown to down-regulate melanin content. To document PICE's antioxidative property, which is known to influence melanogenic activity, we assessed reactive species (RS) generation, reduced glutathione (GSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) levels in these B16 cells. The results showed that PICE suppressed RS generation and enhanced the GSH/GSSG ratio. In conclusion, our results indicated that the antimelanogenic action of PICE is likely exhibited by the combined effect of PICE's antioxidative property and its ability to suppress RS generation while increasing the GSH/GSSG ratio.