Medicinal Plants for the Treatment of Hair Loss and the Suggested Mechanisms

Hair loss may not be recognized as a life-threatening disorder. However, it has a great harm to a person's self-respect, mental health, and entirety quality of life. Androgenic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of hair loss, which affects a great number of both men and women. Alopecia can be treated with various hair loss strategies, including hair transplant, cosmetics and medication. Medical treatment shows the outstanding ability in improving hair growth. Plenty of drugs prevents alopecia by inhibiting the secretion of male hormone. But these medicines exhibit some undesirable side effects. Since hair loss requires a long-term treatment and minimizing adverse side effects is extremely urgent in drug development. Accordingly, new agents are obtained from natural products with less adverse effects. Traditional Chinese medicines exhibit unique advantages in hair loss treatment. This review generalizes and analyzes the recent progress of medicinal plants for the treatment of hair loss, suggested mechanisms and outlines a number of trials taken or underway to optimize the treatment.