Medicinal Herbs Effective for Gray Hair in Traditional Persian Medicine

Abstract

Background: With today’s increasing life expectations, the desire to look youthful plays a bigger role than ever. The use of plants for this purpose has a history as old as that of mankind himself. In the Traditional Persian Medicine, many herbal formulations have been reported for hair growth promotion as well as improvement in the quality of hair. Objective: The aim of this study is to introduce effective medicinal plants in Traditional Persian Medicine for gray hair that can be used in new products. Methods: The present study is an overview study and codified by the Library search method in the main sources of Traditional Persian Medicine. Results: After reviewing the selected book, we discovered that three types of formulations recommended for gray hair by traditional healers contain preventive, treatment, and dying compounds. Our research indicated that the parts of the plants used most frequently in the treatment and preventive compounds are leaves, seeds, and fruit that are more often used as a topical oil or oral compound (electuaries). The majority of plant parts used in hair dyes are leaves, fruit, and gum which all are used topically. Conclusion: Synthetic-based formulations may cause several side effects on human health and with the increasing popularity of the herbal drugs in hair care products, it is worthwhile to carry out the systemic investigation on the efficacy of these formulations and their preparations. We hope that this study could show a way of using Traditional Persian Medicine in hair care products in the future.