Abstract
BACKGROUND: Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) is a common household plant with needle-like leaves and white flowers that belongs to the family Lamiaceae and has various medicinal properties including ailments of hair and scalp, cardiovascular, nervous disorders, etc., In the current work, we have focused on formulation and evaluation of 1% hair lotion incorporated with methanolic extract of R. officinalis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The aerial parts of the plant were extracted with methanol and then the nature of phytochemicals were identified by chemical tests. It showed the presence of proteins, amino acids, fats and oils, steroids, glycosides, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, volatile oil, and vitamins. The extract was formulated to a suitable hair lotion and then evaluated for its various quality control parameters. Finally, the lotion was evaluated for hair growth promoting activity on C57BL/6 mice, using water as control and 2% minoxidil hair lotion as standard. RESULTS: It was observed that the formulated 1% herbal hair lotion passed all the evaluation parameters and showed a significant hair growth promoting activity than the standard drug-treated animals. CONCLUSION: Although several researches have been carried out on the rosemary, an investigation on formulation of hair lotion adding the extract of the aerial part of the plant is for the first time. Since our formulation exhibited an excellent activity, it can be well thought out to be an alternative to the commercially available hair growth promoters with a lot of unwanted effects.