Ayurvedic hair secrets: COSSMA

Provital combined an ancient ayurvedic well-ageing secret and advanced botanical research in its latest innovation. Amla is a natural adaptogen fruit and is known for its wellness and well-ageing benefits for scalp & hair.

This new active prevents hair follicles from miniaturisation and thus improves parameters of hair quality such as resistance, shine, hair thickness and colour. Amla is the Hindi word for a fruit tree (Emblica officinalis or Phyllanthus emblica) that grows throughout India and bears sour-tasting gooseberry-like fruits. Amla has been used in Ayurveda and other Asian medicinal practices for thousands of years. It is a highly revered rasayana fruit, which means it has strengthening and rejuvenating effects. With incredible healing properties, this wonderful berry has played a key role in the long, thick, beautiful hair of India women. It contains an array of antioxidants such as emblicanin, phyllantine, quercetin, gallic acid, and ellagic acid. It also contains a high concentration of minerals and amino acids, and has strong immunity boosting properties. Studies have shown that an active ingredient derived from Amla fruits is able to prevent follicle miniaturisation, which is the main cause for hair ageing.

Hair follicle ageing can be prevented

As we age, hair follicles miniaturize, leading to the visible effects of hair ageing; the hair gets thinner, loses volume, breaks more easily and grows more slowly. Recent studies1 show that hair follicle ageing is driven by transepidermal elimination of stem cells via Collagen XVII (COL17A1) proteolysis. The hair follicle is a mini-organ that sustains cyclic hair regrowth. A pool of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) is responsible for the new hair shaft production in each cycle.

As all other organs, the hair follicle is susceptible to ageing caused by genomic instability as a result of accumulated DNA damage. It has recently been shown that the DNA damage response induces the proteolysis of the type XVII Collagen (COL17A1) by neutrophil elastase in HFSCs. In each new hair growth cycle, these aged COL17A1 depleted stem cells leave their niche in the hair follicle, terminally differentiate into epidermal keratinocytes, and are then eliminated from the skin surface. As a result, the hair follicle suffers miniaturisation, which leads to hair thinning and the reduction in the number of hairs which subsequently leads to senescent baldness. Hair follicle ageing, however, can be prevented by maintening COL17A1 in HFSCs ¹. The natural active ingredient derived from Amla fruits, is able to prevent follicle miniaturisation by increasing expression of Collagen XVII (COL17A1) while reducing its proteolysis.

Figure 1: Evolution of hair growth over a seven-day period in follicle cultures grown ex vivo in the presence or absence (control). Photo: Provital Group

Growth of hair along the experiment

Provital performed in vitro assays to evaluate the anti-ageing effects of Kerascalp™, by analysing the activity of genes and proteins involved in the miniaturisation process. Results show that the active can increase the expression of COL17A1 that maintains the pool of hair follicle stem cells and decreases the activity of proteases to protect the stem cells from ageing.

Hair follicles cultivated ex vivo presented a steady growth of hair along the experiment in all treatments. Importantly, hair length increases faster when bulbs are treated with the Amla based active at the concentrations of 0.25% and 0.32% compared to the control across the seven-day culture period (Figure 1). On day 7 the hair length is significantly increased by 22% at both concentrations.

Figure 2: TrichoScan evolution images of application area. Photo: Provital Group

Active increases in the number and thickness of hair

An in vivo study was conducted to assess the effects of Kerascalp™ on several scalp and hair ageing signs, such as gloss, resistance, number and density of hair follicles and ratio of follicles in different phases of growth. Sixty volunteers (thirty women and thirty men) from 40 to 60 years old, with thin and weak hair participated in this study.

Hair number and density was analysed by TrichoScan HD system with a digital image recording and a software based analysis, which can assess all the major parameters of hair growth such as hair follicle density and terminal hair density. The thrichometer analysis shows that the active increases the number and thickness of hair. It also shows visible improvements in the texture of the scalp, minimising the presence of dry flakes.

Hair strength was evaluated by a Pull Test. The results show that, when the volunteers were treated with the active, the percentage of change in hair pulled was decreased by 12.2%, and 52.3%, after 84 and 150 days of application, respectively.

Figure 3: Standard images of application area. Photo: Provital Group

An overall improvement in hair density

To analyse the evolution of hair thickness, an artificial intelligence algorithm, was used to automatically identify the hair fibres in the trichoscan pictures. Hairs were categorized as thin or thick. The number of hairs in each category was quantified in each volunteer throughout the course of the study.

The results show that both the number of thin and thick hairs was increased significantly in volunteers treated with Kerascalp™ compared to the number of hairs quantified in the placebo-treated volunteers. The increase in thick hairs was also much higher than that for thin hairs, providing more volume to the hair. The active increased the number of thick hairs by 56% at 150 days. Standardized photographic images obtained with parallel polarised light were obtained during the study with a Canon DSLR camera with a circular polariser for all the volunteers.

In both women and men, the images show an overall improvement in hair density and quality throughout the study. The results of the study show that Kerascalp™, an active ingredient based on the rasayana (rejuvenator) fruit amla, prevents hair follicle miniaturisation, encourages hair growth and visibly improves the quality of hair.

References

1-Livak, K. J. & Schmittgen, T. D. Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(-Delta Delta C(T)) Method. Methods 25, 402–8 (2001).