Effects of Taxifolin-3-O-arabinopyranoside from Rhododendron mucronulatum Root Extracts on the Alleviation of Hair-Loss Symptoms

Rhododendron mucronulatum has been used in folk remedies and traditional medicine to treat various diseases such as cold symptoms and inflammation. It has been reported through previous studies that this is caused by flavonoids, which constitute most of the secondary metabolites of plants of the genus Rhododendron and there was a study result that taxifolin glycosides were isolated from R. mucronulatum. R. mucronulatum has been studied for various activities such as antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory, but research on anti-hair loss activity is lacking. Therefore, in this study, taxifolin glycoside was isolated and purified from R. mucronulatum root extract, and after structural identification, anti-hair loss activity was studied. First, an experiment was conducted to suppress the production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is the main cause of male pattern hair loss, and an experiment was conducted to suppress apoptosis of hair follicle dermal papilla cells (HFDPC) due to oxidative stress. As a result, both R. mucronulatum extract and taxifolin glycosides showed concentration-dependent manner DHT production inhibitory activity and apoptosis inhibitory activity at the total concentration of the experiment. In addition, it showed the activity of increasing the expression of IGF-1, a hair growth promoting factor, and decreasing the expression of, TGF-β1, a hair growth inhibitory factor. Therefore, the potential for development as a new material for the treatment of male pattern hair loss was confirmed.