Herbal anti-dandruff shampoos

Herbal anti-dandruff shampoos are the cosmetic formulations which contain herbal ingredients
such as plant extracts and essential oil. These herbal shampoos are generally used to remove the
dandruff, to add natural color to the hair, to remove the extra oil content of the hair, for the
healthy growth of the hair, to remove the dust, dirt, and scales of the scalp, to prevent hair
falling, to impart softness and smoothness to the hair shaft, etc. It is assumed that they can
penetrate to the root shafts, stimulate the sebaceous glands, enhance the blood circulation and
impart greater strength to the hair root and the shaft. They are also used against alopecia,
thinning, clubbing, and graying of hair and hair shaft roughness and breaking. There are large
numbers of plants which have beneficial effects on hair and are commonly used in shampoos
Ingredients of a Shampoo.

Composition of Shampoos2-6

The following are the ingredients used for preparation of shampoos. They include Primary
surfactants e.g. Sodium lauryl sulphate, triethanol lauryl sulphate. Secondary surfactants e.g.
dialkyl sulphosuccinates, monoalkyl sulphosuccinates. Germicides and Antidandruff agent’s e.g.
salicylic acid, Benzoic acid. Conditioning agents e.g. Fatty substances like lanolin, oils.
Pearlescent agent’s e.g.4 Methyl-7-diethylamino coumarin. Sequestrates e.g. Sodium salt of
EDTA. Thickening agents e.g. Alginates. Preservatives e.g. formaldehyde, methyl paraben,
propyl paraben. Solubilizing agents’ e.g. Aliphatic alcohols, Urea etc.

Dandruff represents one of the most common dermatological skin conditions and is a chronic,
non inflammatory condition of the scalp that is characterized by excessive scaling of scalp tissue.
Dandruff is apparently caused by a fungus called Malassezia restricta and M. globosa.
Malassezia formerly called Pityrosporum is a yeast causing infection of skin and scalp. It often
causes itching. Warm and humid atmosphere, overcrowding and poor personal hygiene are
ideally suited for the growth of Malassezia. Dandruff affects 5% of the population and mostly
occurs after puberty, between 20-30 years and dandruff affects males more than females.
Dandruff occurs exclusively on skin in areas with high levels of sebum. Symptoms of dandruff
mainly include itching, flakes; redness of scalp. Dandruff can be treated in two ways, by using
herbal based antidandruff shampoo and by using chemical based antidandruff shampoo. A
shampoo is a preparation containing surfactant (i.e. surface active material) in a suitable form –
liquid, solid or powder – which when used under the specified conditions will remove surface
grease, dirt, and skin debris from the hair shaft and scalp without adversely affecting the user.
Most shampoos contain water, a detergent (cleaning agent), surfactant (lather making agent), salt,
fragrance (natural and artificial), preservative and food coloring. With the exception of water and
salt (sodium chloride), different chemical compounds are used depending on the desired result of
the shampoo. Many shampoos also contain vitamins and moisturizing alcohols to prevent too
much of the hair and scalp's natural oils from being stripped away during cleansing. Herbal
Cosmetics, here in after referred as Products, and are formulated, using various permissible
cosmetic ingredients to form the base in which one or more herbal ingredients are used to
provide defined cosmetic benefits only, shall be called as “Herbal Cosmetics10-11”. Herbal
drugs or their formulations are viable alternative to synthetic drugs. During the past few decades,
there has been a dramatic increase in the use of natural products in cosmetics. Now-a-days, many
herbal shampoos are available in the market which contains herbal ingredients such as plant
extracts and essential oils. There are large number of plants which are reported to have beneficial
effects on hair and are commonly used in shampoos. Many herbs such as Hibiscus rosasinensis,
Lawsonia inermis, Citrus aurantifolia, Phyllanthus emblica, Ocimum sanctum, Zingiber
officinalis, Azadirecta indica, aloe vera have been used as an anti-dandruff agents in many
shampoo formulations.

The common ingredients of a shampoo are:

 Detergents
 Conditioners
 Thickeners
 Preservatives
 Fragrance

Detergents:

Shampoo generally include artificial detergents or surfactants as cleansers. A detergent or

surfactant is amphiphilic in nature, which means the detergent molecules includes both lipophilic
and hydrophilic sites. The lipophilic sites assist to bind sebum, oily dust and hydrophilic end
binds to water.
Conditioners:

Hair conditioning features are to impart manageability, gloss and residues of hair. This may be
included in the shampoo which then serves dual function of cleaning and conditioning.

Thickeners:

These are introduced to alternate the physical and optical properties of the shampoo. Many
shampoos are pearlescent. Thickeners like sodium chloride are used to grow the product
viscosity. These does not show any effect on hair cleansing.

Preservatives:

Preservatives withstand germs and save us from decomposition of the shampoos. They also
prevent various other health risks that accompany infection through germs and bacteria.

Materials and methods

Collection of plant materials

For the present study, five different Indian plants selected, Neem, Mimosa pudica, Hibiscus,
Henna and curry leaves. These plant leaves were collected from the NGSMIPS college campus
and packed in polybag for further use.

Preparation of plant leaves extract

All the plant leaves collected were dried for a period of three days. All the dried leaves were
coarsely powdered for preparing dried extract. In 500ml beaker add take 350ml of water and add
10g of dried extract powdered leaves and boil for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes of heating
followed by concentration, cool the extract for few minutes, filter using filter paper and collect
the filtratein a conical flask and cover it with cotton plug. The name of different plant used, part
of the plant and quantity used for preparing extract is shown in Table 1.

Table1: Details of herbal plant, part of plant and quantity used for herbal shampoo

Name of the plant Part of the plant Quantity of dried leaves

used
Azadirachtaindica Leaves 10g
 Lawsoniainermis Leaves 10g
Hibiscus laveis Leaves 10g
Murraya koenigii Leaves 10g
Mimosa pudica Leaves 10g

Method of preparation of herbal shampoo formulations

1. In 250 ml beaker take 40 ml of water and add 4 ml of oleic acid.

2. Dissolve it completely by mechanical stirrer.
3. Add 6g of sodium lauryl sulphate and stir.
4. Heat gently at 60°C.
5. When both get dissolved reduce stirring speed and add 3 ml of triethanolamine and
continue stirring for 5 minutes.
6. After that, EDTA and Methyl paraben together were added and stirring continued till it
becomes clear liquid.
7. In another beaker take 30 ml of water and add tween 80 and stir it for 10 minutes and
required quantity of plant extracts were added.
8. This liquid was added to above one and stir for 20 minutes.
9. Filter the liquid and the filtered liquid was used for evaluating parameters.

The ingredients used for formulating herbal shampoos were listed in Table 2 and the prepared
formulations were depicted in Fig 2

Ingredients F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6