JP2011068601A - Oral hair tonic - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a hair tonic that can be orally taken and can increase the number of hair follicles themselves. <P>SOLUTION: The oral hair tonic is characterized by including powder and/or an extract of blossoms of Punica granatum as an effective component. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an oral hair restorer that exhibits sufficient effects even when administered orally.

  The hair has a great influence on the appearance of the person, and not only the hairstyle and its cleanliness, but also the amount of hair affects the person's impression. Nevertheless, the cause of hirsutism has not been clarified, and the number of people suffering from hirsutism is increasing.

  Conventionally, hair growth agents that promote blood circulation of the scalp have been used for hirsutism. However, no hair-restoring agent has yet been developed, and the current situation is that wigs are also used. Recently, hair restorers containing minoxidil and the like are also marketed, but minoxidil is originally a drug for the treatment of hypertension and there are concerns about side effects, so the amount of hair restorer used on a daily basis is limited. ing.

  By the way, the present inventor has continued research to find safer active ingredients from plants, and extracts active ingredients from natural products used in traditional medicine around the world. I have found a medicinal effect. We are also studying pomegranate flowers, and have found anti-diabetic action and PPARγ activation action as disclosed in Patent Documents 1-2.

  Normally, pomegranate is edible, so various active ingredients and medicinal effects have been studied for fruits. However, research results have also been raised for pomegranate flowers.

  For example, the present inventor has found a substance having an elastase inhibitory action from a pomegranate flower (Patent Document 3), and also found that the pomegranate flower improves skin aging symptoms (Patent Document 4).

  In addition, as disclosed in Patent Documents 5 to 6, the extract of pomegranate flower has been found to have a DPPH radical scavenging action and the like, and has been proposed for use as a skin external preparation.

Japanese Patent No. 396532 Japanese Patent No. 4247154 JP 2005-53873 A JP 2005-306831 A JP 2005-306932 A JP 2006-225286 A

  As described above, effective countermeasures against hirsutism are eagerly desired, but there is still no truly effective hair restorer. The reason for this is thought to be the variety of causes of hirsutism and the means of administration.

  Specifically, hirsutism has various symptoms such as alopecia areata and seborrheic alopecia. Possible causes include male hormones, poor circulation and excessive dieting. Therefore, it is difficult to develop a hair-restoring agent that has a uniform effect on various hair loss. However, in contrast to hair growth agents that simply improve blood circulation in the scalp, a hair growth agent that wraps the hair root cells in the dermis of the skin and increases the number of hair follicles that nourishes itself can prevent various hair loss. The effect can be shown more reliably.

  Moreover, in the external hair restorer, there exists a problem that it is difficult for an active ingredient to permeate | transmit a skin and to reach a hair root. Since particularly safe active ingredients tend to be highly hydrophilic, they cannot penetrate the epidermis composed of the stratum corneum. On the other hand, it is conceivable to increase the skin permeability of the active ingredient by blending an organic solvent such as isopropanol, but the organic solvent itself may cause rough skin and may promote hair loss.

  Then, this invention aims at providing the hair restorer which can be orally administered and can increase the number of hair follicles itself.

  This inventor repeated earnest research in order to solve the said subject. As a result, the pomegranate flower, which has been researched for some time, was found to have the effect of increasing hair follicles by oral administration, thus completing the present invention.

  The oral hair restorer according to the present invention comprises pomegranate (Punica granatum) flower powder and / or an extract as an active ingredient.

  The oral hair restorer of the present invention preferably contains an aqueous extract of pomegranate flowers as an active ingredient. Since the active ingredient is concentrated in such an oral hair restorer, a further effect can be expected.

  The hair restorer according to the present invention can be administered orally. Therefore, it is considered that the skin permeability of the active ingredient does not become a problem, and the active ingredient absorbed in the intestinal tract can act directly on the hair root cells via blood. In addition, the oral hair restorer of the present invention wraps the hair root cells in the dermis of the skin and imparts nutrition, and can significantly increase the number of hair follicles which is substantially equal to the number of hairs. Furthermore, the safety of the oral hair restorer of the present invention has been confirmed by experiments by the present inventors. Therefore, the present invention is very useful as an effective means for dealing with hirsutism.

It is a graph which shows the relative value of the number of hair follicles of a young mouse group, a control group of old mice, a high dose administration group of the present invention extract, and a low dose administration group of the present extract. In the graph, “*” indicates that there is a significant difference at a risk rate p <0.05.

  The oral hair restorer according to the present invention comprises pomegranate (Punica granatum) flower powder and / or an extract as an active ingredient.

  Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a deciduous small Takagi tree of the genus Pomegranate belonging to Iran, and its fruits are edible. Pomegranate blossoms are also called stalagmite flowers, and traditionally used in traditional medicine in Arabia, India, and China, they are used as nosebleed medicines. However, there are few examples of academic research.

  The type of pomegranate flower used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and there is no particular limitation such as single bloom or double bloom, but it is preferable to use a flower taken from the corolla before falling.

  When pomegranate flower powder is used as an active ingredient, it is preferable to dry and pulverize the pomegranate flower. The drying method is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include sun drying, half sun drying, shade drying, heat drying, room temperature drying, freeze drying, vacuum drying, etc., but sun drying, half sun drying, and shade drying, which are conventionally used in herbal medicine production. Is preferred. However, pomegranate flowers are relatively thick and the flowering time in Japan mainly falls in the rainy season, so it is also preferable to carry out heat drying, freeze drying, and vacuum drying. With respect to the degree of drying, it is preferable that the water content is 5% or less in consideration of mold generation.

  The reason for using powder is to increase the efficiency of intestinal absorption of active ingredients and the efficiency of pomegranate flower digestion. Therefore, the pomegranate flower may be crushed as finely as possible, but considering the production efficiency, it is preferably about 50 mesh or more and 200 mesh or less.

  The extraction method in the case of using an extract of pomegranate flower as an active ingredient is not particularly limited, and for example, the pomegranate flower may be extracted as it is, or extracted from a coarsely crushed or crushed pomegranate flower. Alternatively, it may be extracted from a once dried product. Considering the extraction efficiency, it is preferable to extract from a finer material such as the above powder.

As the solvent for extraction, an aqueous solvent is suitable. This is in consideration of the convenience of extraction work, safety if it is extracted from an aqueous solvent because it is water-soluble, and safety when the solvent remains. Furthermore, as described later, the pomegranate flower extract with a 95 v / v% aqueous ethanol solution exhibits an excellent hair-growth effect by oral administration. Here, the aqueous solvent refers to water, a highly polar water-miscible organic solvent, and a mixed solvent of water and a water-miscible organic solvent. Examples of the water-miscible organic solvent include C _1-6 alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and t-butyl alcohol. Preferably, water or ethanol water is used, and ethanol water is more preferable. More preferably, ethanol water or ethanol having a concentration of 50 v / v% or more and less than 100 v / v% is used.

  When using dried pomegranate flowers, the amount of the solvent used for extraction is about 2 to 50 times the mass of pomegranate flowers, and when using non-drying pomegranate flowers, it is 0.5 to 30 times the mass of pomegranate flowers. It is preferable to make it about twice or less.

  The extraction conditions are not particularly limited and may be adjusted as appropriate. For example, the extraction temperature is not particularly limited and may be appropriately adjusted. However, it is preferable to perform the extraction at a temperature of about room temperature to about 50 ° C. in consideration of the possibility that the active ingredient is thermally decomposed. However, it may be heated to increase the extraction efficiency. The extraction time may be adjusted as appropriate, but usually it is preferably about 10 hours or more and 250 hours or less. During extraction, the mixture of pomegranate flowers and extraction solvent may be left standing or stirred.

  What is necessary is just to perform the process after extraction by a conventional method. For example, the pomegranate flower residue is filtered and washed with a solvent, and the washing liquid is combined with the filtrate, and then the solvent is removed. However, excessive heating at the time of removing the solvent is not preferable, and it is preferable to concentrate under reduced pressure at about room temperature to about 50 ° C.

  The hair restorer according to the present invention is for oral administration. Therefore, unlike external preparations, it is not necessary to consider the skin permeability of the active ingredient. In addition, the effectiveness of the hair restorer of the present invention administered orally has been experimentally proven by the present inventors.

  The dosage form of the oral hair restorer according to the present invention is not particularly limited. In other words, any pomegranate (Punica granatum) flower powder and / or extract may be used as an active ingredient, and the powder or extract may be used as it is, for example, addition of a general oral preparation. Binders, disintegrants, excipients, lubricants, surfactants, preservatives, colorants, fragrances and other powders, fine granules, granules, tablets, teas, coatings, capsules It may be. Moreover, it is also possible to add to processed foods, such as confectionery.

  The dose of the oral hair restorer of the present invention varies depending on the symptoms and the number of doses. However, in the case of an extract, it is usually possible to take about 50 mg or more and 1000 mg or less per dose about 1 to 3 times a day. preferable.

  The compound which shows an effect with the oral hair restorer of this invention is not specified. However, the number of such compounds is not one, and there is a possibility that a plurality of compounds interact with each other additively or synergistically to exhibit an excellent hair-restoring action.

  The oral hair restorer of the present invention is derived from pomegranate flowers and is not only considered to be very safe, but its safety has actually been confirmed. That is, even when the extract according to the present invention was orally administered at a dose of 2000 mg / kg that can be physically administered to dd-Y mice, there was no death. In addition, a subacute test in which the extract of the present invention was orally administered at a dose of 2000 mg / kg over 4 weeks and a mutagenicity test using bacteria were performed, but no abnormal value was observed. Therefore, it is considered that the oral hair restorer according to the present invention is safe even if taken constantly.

  EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples. However, the present invention is not limited by the following examples, but may be appropriately modified within a range that can meet the purpose described above and below. Of course, it is possible to implement them, and they are all included in the technical scope of the present invention.

Example 1 Preparation of a pomegranate flower extract according to the present invention A pre-fallen flower was collected from a corolla from a pomegranate. The pomegranate flower (100 g) was roughly cut, a 95 v / v% aqueous ethanol solution (2 L) was added, and the mixture was allowed to stand at room temperature for 8 days with occasional shaking. Thereafter, insoluble components were removed by filtration, and the obtained filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure at 40 ° C. or lower. The residue was dried with a desiccator to obtain an extract (28 g).

Test Example 1 Hair-growth test Sixteen 4-week-old young dd-Y male mice were arbitrarily divided into a control group, an extract high dose administration group and an extract low dose administration group. 0.15% of the extract of Example 1 was mixed with the feed given to the extract high dose administration group, and 0.075% was mixed with the feed to the extract low dose administration group. Mice were raised for 45 weeks in an animal room with a temperature of 23 ± 1 ° C., a humidity of 30 to 70%, and a light / dark period of 12 hours, during which food and water were freely consumed.

  The body weight of the mice was measured in the first month from the start of the breeding, but no significant difference was observed between the groups. In addition, blood was collected after fasting for 6 hours and feeding again for 6 hours on the day before the last day of the period, and the blood glucose level was biochemically examined with a commercially available measurement kit. As a result, there was no significant difference in these values between the control group and the extract administration group.

  After the breeding period, the mice were killed with ether and the heart, liver and kidney weights and subcutaneous fat mass were measured, but no significant difference was found between the groups.

Immediately after being killed, the back was shaved and a 1 cm ² epidermis was collected to prepare a pathological section. Each pathological section was stained with Van Gieson, image processing was performed using NIH software, and the number of hair follicles was counted.

  Furthermore, the same treatment was performed on 6 4-week-old juvenile dd-Y male mice, blood glucose levels and major organ weights were measured, and the number of hair follicles was counted. As a result, the blood glucose level and the weight of major organs were not significantly different from those of other mouse groups. Moreover, the measurement result of the number of hair follicles is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, “*” indicates that there is a significant difference in the risk rate p <0.05 in the t test.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the number of hair follicles of old mice bred for 45 weeks (about 10 months) is clearly smaller than that of young mice. However, the number of hair follicles of old mice administered with the pomegranate flower extract according to the present invention is significantly increased compared to the number of hair follicles of old control mice not administered. Since the number of hair follicles is considered to be equal to the number of hairs, it was demonstrated that the pomegranate flower extract according to the present invention has a hair-growing action.

  In addition, the blood sugar level, body weight, and main organ weights of the aged mice administered with the pomegranate flower extract according to the present invention are not significantly changed compared to young mice and control mice. It is believed that there is. In addition, since the lifetime of the mouse | mouth used for experiment is about 2 years or more, when it converts into a human, the mouse | mouth of an extract administration group is equivalent to taking the extract of this invention for 20-30 years. From this, the safety of the extract of the present invention can be understood.

Claims (2)

  An oral hair restorer comprising pomegranate (Punica granatum) flower powder and / or an extract as an active ingredient.   The oral hair restorer according to claim 1, comprising an aqueous extract of pomegranate flowers as an active ingredient.

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