Development and Evaluation of Herbal Medicine for Hair Growth-Promoting Activity
December 2016
in “
KSBB Journal
”
Studysummary This study found that a herbal medicine increased hair growth in a mouse model, showing strong antioxidant activity and similar 5-alpha-reductase inhibition to finasteride without cytotoxicity in human dermal papilla cells. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
In 2016, a study was conducted to develop and evaluate a herbal medicine for promoting hair growth. The researchers screened 10 medicinal herbs (Red ginseng, Licorice, Ulmus, Barberry root, Lycium root, Rehmanniae radix crudus, Sophora root, Sweet flag, Polygala root, Achyranthes) based on oriental medicine literature. The herbal medicine was found to have no cytotoxic effects at 1% concentration and increased cell growth at 0.1% concentration. It also demonstrated stronger antioxidant activity than resveratrol and comparable $5-{\alpha}$ reductase inhibitory activity to finasteride. In an in vivo mouse model, the herbal medicine-treated group showed increases in the number and length of hair. The study concluded that the herbal medicine promotes hair growth by its antioxidant activity and inhibitory activity of $5-{\alpha}$ reductase, suggesting it could be a promising hair growth-promoting agent.
