Hair loss and herbs for treatment

Abstract

or androgenetic alopecia directly distresses self-confidence affecting the individual's quality of life. Hair loss is therefore a significant psychosocial manifestation that worth much expense on treatment. Androgenetic alopecia is noticed as a slow transformation of large scalp terminal hair follicles to shorter, thinner, and less deep vellus hair with a much shorter anagen. Although minoxidil, finasteride, and dutasteride including other synthetic therapeutic agents are mostly used for alopecia treatment, their adverse effects encourage sorting of alternative efficient treatment agent with a limited side effect particularly herbs. Thus, this review briefly summarized causes of hair loss and emphasized on active ingredients for treatment in particular currently used herbs and the potential candidates. Treatment choices will be further wider and conclusively select herbs that fitting the consumers' preference.

Using Hair Growth Activity, Physical Stability, and Safety Tests to Study Hair Tonics Containing Ethanol Extract of Licorice (Glycyrrhiza Glabra Linn.)

“…Saponin can increase peripheral blood circulation, thereby increasing hair growth [20]. Moreover, the phytoestrogen compounds (isoflavone daidzin, genistein, and glycitein) contained in licorice are the active ingredients in preventing hair loss by blocking the formation of DHT (a DHT blocker), and the β-sitosterol compound acts as a hair regrowth promoter [9].…”

“…A study by Khalaf et al (2010) on methanol extract from licorice showed that there were eight components with phytoestrogen activity (seven isoflavone components and one coumestan component): Daidzein, daidzin, genistein, glycitein, formononetin, ononin, and coumestrol. The phytoestrogen components contained in licorice (isoflavone, daidzin, genistein, and glycitein) act as active components in hair loss prevention by blocking the production of DHT (a DHT blocker) and a β-sitosterol compound, which is a hair regrowth promoter [9]. Glabridin and glabrene are flavonoids contained in licorice that is suspected to have estrogen-like activity.…”

Alternative Medicine for Hair Loss

“…The social and sexual communication roles of hair as well as its protective function have absolutely undeniable for both sexes for many years [1,2]. Although the loss of hair is not a life-threatening condition, the loss of hair at an early age or sudden onset hair loss may cause serious psychological distress, thus it may directly affect the quality of life negatively [1,3].…”

“…The most used conventional treatments are topical minoxidil, finasteride, dutasteride, combination of cyproterone acetate and estrogen, spironolactone, flutamide, topical progesterone, cimetidine, zinc sulfate, topical niacin, topical aminexil, topical ketoconazole, and cyclosporine-A [2]. In particular, minoxidil and finasteride are widely used for treating hair loss.…”

“…In particular, minoxidil and finasteride are widely used for treating hair loss. But adverse effects of all of these agents have limited to their usage [1,2]. Hence, patients suffer from hair loss have begun to turn to alternative therapies, even though there is little scientific evidence to prove their effectiveness.…”