CORRELATION IN HAIR GROWTH AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF SOME HIMALAYAN MEDICINAL PLANTS

Abstract

Alopecia or baldness is a very common dermatological disorder. The antioxidants are believed to check the loss of hair. Therefore, the present study deals with the assessment of antioxidant and hair growth promotion activity of some Himalayan medicinal plants for exploring the correlation between the activities. The present work deals with three plants - Trigonella foenumgraecum (seeds), Trigonella corniculata(seeds) and Geranium wallichianum (roots). Aloe vera gel based herbal formulations were prepared with extracts of each plant. Hair growth activity of the formulations was studied in comparison of 2 % minoxidil suspension (standard) in denuded area of albino rats for 30 days. The antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract were investigated by measuring and comparing the free radical (DPPH) scavenging activity of the plant extracts with the activity of butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA). It was concluded that Trigonella showed the best hair growth activity. The order of hair growth initiation time was found to be as followed- T. corniculata (6 d) = T. foenumgraceum (6 d) T. corniculata (90.24 %) > T. foenumgraceum (84.65 %) > G. wallichianum (35.62 %). As the hair growth activity of the plants was found to be in the same order as that of their antioxidant activity, it was concluded that antioxidant activity is associated with the hair growth activity also.