Scientific paper on natural hair growth / stop substances

[Future]

I was wondering whether in the meantime there exist scientific studies about the effectiveness of allegedly natural hair growth / hair stop substances: tea tree, saw palmetta, vitamins, amino acids etc.

Or does the myth about those magic natural formulas still continue?

 

[docj077]

Most of the myths regarding herbal remedies become the truths of modern medicine once drug companies learn how the synthesize the active ingredients and sell it in a concentrated form.

 

[Future]

any examples for that? For example Propecia, is it based on natural remedies?

 

[docj077]

I do not know of any drugs that are based on herbal 5AR inhibitors.

However, drugs like aspirin are based upon substances from Willow Treas, morphine comes from the seeds of opium poppy, quinine is from the bark of the cinchona tree, and extract of rosy periwinkle is what we get vincristine from, which is a drug used against leukemia. These herbs were processed, their molecular structures investigated, and drug companies simply synthesized their own versions.

 

[Future]

...so, in terms of the initial question - there should be any clinical studies then, or?

 

[powersam]

to answer the spirit of your question rather than the letter, not really. people dont do studies on things that won't really benefit anyone medically or financially.

 

[Strat54]

I always thought that no one will invest millions of dollars in research for a herb that you can buy at Walmart.

Prescriptions for herbs? New technology could make it possible

"There's a lot of the public-- the figures are 90 percent-- that don't take herbals, said Elliot Friedman of Pharmaprint." They would rather take a pharmaceutical that's been approved by the FDA and given under a doctor's guidance."

Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say prescription herbs sound promising.

"If there is a way to patent certain herbs, then there would be an incentive to do clinical studies and that would give us information which would be good," said Bill Schultze of the FDA.

But the FDA says most herbs would continue to be available without a prescription, so consumers need to understand those products still are not tested the way conventional drugs are.

This article is from December 1996, and I haven’t seen a patent on any herb yet.

An incentive to do clinical studies on herbs sounds great.

But buying green tea at a drugstore, with a prescription, and at a higher price, doesn’t sound too good.

 

[Future]

to answer the spirit of your question rather than the letter, not really. people dont do studies on things that won't really benefit anyone medically or financially.

in other words - eg. pharmaceutical companies nor any other, eg. with Propecia competing company wouldn't do any (extensive) research on, say, herbal hair growth substances simply because they believe there isn't any prospect of making profit out of it - despite a multi billion market as everybody knows!

Interesting.