The present invention addresses the problem of providing a skin lightening agent which has excellent skin lightening effect. According to the present invention, a skin lightening agent is configured to contain a compound represented by general formula (1) and/or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof as an active ingredient. (In general formula (1), each R independently represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group or an ethyl group; and n represents an integer of 1-9.)本發明之課題係提供一種具有優異美白作用的美白劑。將下述通式(1)所表示的化合物、及/或其藥理學上可容許的鹽作為美白劑之有效成分。(通式(1)中,R獨立地表示氫原子、甲基或乙基,n表示1~9之整數)。