Study on the chemical constituents of nut oil from Prunus mira Koehne and the mechanism of promoting hair growth

Abstract

Ethnopharmacological relevancePrunus mira Koehne (P. mira, Tibetan name: ཁམབུ།) is a kind of medicinal plant commonly used in Tibetan areas. The classic Tibetan medicine book Jingzhu Materia Medica records that “the nut oil from P. mira is used to cure loss of hair, eyebrows, beards, etc.” but the clinical experience has not been explored. Hair loss (alopecia) is a skin disease that becomes a common concern in Chinese society since it affects the appearance of a person. This paper studies the effectiveness of nut oil from P. mira in promoting hair growth and its working mechanism. Materials and methodsThe content of different components in the nut oil from P. mira was determined by HPLC. Two hair removal methods (sodium sulfide and hair removal cream) were used to study the effect of different doses on hair growth in KM mice. Then select the effective group, and use C57BL/6 mice to determine the number of hair follicles, dermal thickness, β-catenin, GSK3β and Wnt10 b mRNA and protein expression. ResultsThe contents of α-tocopherol, β-sitosterol, Vitamin E, Oleic acid and linoleic acid in nut oil from P. mira growing in 12 different regions were determined by HPLC. The linearity reached 0.999. The RSD of precision, stability, repeatability, and sample recovery was less than 3%. The dose-effect relationship suggested that 30.13 and 14.07 mg medicinal material·(cm2·d)−1 oil promoted hair growth and the dose effect was positively correlated. 30.13 mg medicinal material·(cm2·d)−1 nut oil from P. mira can accelerate hair follicles into the anagen, increasing Wnt 10 b mRNA expression, β-catenin mRNA and protein expression, and GSK-3 β protein expression. ConclusionThis study improved the quality control of nut oil from P. mira and found that it has the effect of promoting hair growth in mice. The working mechanism may be related to Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.