Determination of Anti-Dandruff and Hair Growth Promoting Activity of combined coconut oil extract of Marking Nut

Abstract

Dandruff, a most common dermatological disorder, is an unpleasant, chronic and pruritic scalp condition which may leads to hair loss also. This study attempted to know the activity of an herbal formulation against a dandruff causing organism Malassezia furfur which was cultured and identified from human dandruff sample and also performed the hair growth activity. Marking nuts were extracted with coconut oil and its anti-malassezial activity was evaluated based on diffusion dependent assays. Extract showed effective results comparable to a standard drug. In vivo hair growth stimulating activity for the extract was tested on denuded dorsal skin of 5-week old mice against the controls and the standard drug minoxidil. The parameters used to evaluate hair growth were hair growth completion time, hair length, hair weight, and hair follicle length and hair density. The present results provides insights on the use of Marking nuts extract for antimalassezial activity and hair rejuvenation in traditional practices.