Hair growth and hair tanning activities of mangosteen pericarp water extract on hair dermal papilla cells

Abstract

Hair graying represents the most common phenomena of human, and the number of men and women who suffer hair loss is increasing in accordance with changes in lifestyle and nutritional balance. Thus, it is important to develop new therapies to enhance hair growth activity as well as hair tanning. In this study, water extract of mangosteen pericarp was used to investigate its hair growth and tanning activities on hair dermal papilla cells. The mangosteen pericarp extract was found to contain 3.706 mg/ml protein, 0.519 mg/ml polysaccharide, 5.103 gallic acid equivalents mg/g total phenolic content and 1.503 quercetin equivalent mg/g total flavonoid content. Mangosteen pericarp extract showed high IC50 values in both 2,2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) assays (4.142 mg/ml and 2.373 mg/ml, respectively). This indicated that mangosteen pericarp water extract has low antioxidant activity. The effect of mangosteen pericarp extract on the cellular mitochondrial activity, viability and cytotoxicity of hair dermal papilla cells were measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and Sulforhodamine B assays. It was found that the highest concentration of the extract which did not affect the cell viability was 500 µg/ml. For hair growth promoting activity, the degree of hair dermal papilla cells proliferation increased with increasing concentration of extract. By treated the cells with 500 µg/ml of extract, cell proliferation significantly increased by 157.56%, compared to untreated control cells. The mangosteen pericarp extract was found to stimulate melanin synthesis and tyrosinase activity of dermal papilla cells in concentration-dependent manner, up to the highest concentration of 500 µg/ml. The melanin synthesis was more than four-fold as compared to the untreated control group, indicating that this extract could be one of the melanogenic-stimulating agents. This study also showed that mangosteen pericarp extract was more potent and better in comparison with known effective melanogenic agents such as, a-melanocyte stimulating hormone and forskolin in inducing the melanogenic effects of dermal papilla cells. The overall results showed that mangosteen pericarp extract can potentially be used as a safe ingredient for the development of hair growth and hair tanning product.