Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul 5;17(1):355.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-017-1858-1.

Ethnopharmacological survey of home remedies used for treatment of hair and scalp and their methods of preparation in the West Bank-Palestine

Abdel Naser Zaid  1 , Nidal Amin Jaradat  2 , Ahmad Mustafa Eid  2 , Hamzeh Al Zabadi  3 , Abdulsalam Alkaiyat  3 , Saja Adam Darwish  2
Affiliations

Ethnopharmacological survey of home remedies used for treatment of hair and scalp and their methods of preparation in the West Bank-Palestine

Abdel Naser Zaid et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: Natural products have many uses and purposes, including those linked to pharmaceutics and cosmetics. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of natural remedies for the treatment of hair and scalp disorders in the West Bank, Palestine.

Methods: An ethnopharmacological survey of herbal remedies and other natural products used in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals was carried out in the West Bank, Palestine. A questionnaire was distributed to 267 herbalists, traditional healers, hairdressers and rural dwellers. Collected information included: the names of plants and other natural products, the parts used, hair conditions, diseases and problems for which these products were used and also their methods of preparation. To identify the most important species used, the factor of informant's consensus (Fic), fidelity level (Fl) and the use-value (UV) were calculated.

Results: Collected data showed that 41 plants are utilized for the treatment of hair and scalp disorders, belonging to 27 families; among them Lamiaceae and Rosaceae, which were the most commonly used. Plant oils and their fruits are the most commonly used parts. Hair loss, dandruff, split hair endings and lice treatment, are reported as the most treated disorders. The number of plant species used consisted of 19, 14, 13, and again 13 with a factor of informant's consensus (Fic) for these disorders corresponding to 0.93, 0.94, 0.95 and 0.92, respectively. Fl was 100% for many plants; the highest UV value (0.84) was registered for Lawsonia inermis, which belongs to the Lythraceae family.

Conclusions: This study showed that many natural remedies are still used in Palestine for the treatment of scalp and hair disorders as well as for cosmeceutical purposes. This study is of great importance as it allows us to have a greater perspective on our folkloric use of these natural products. A combined scientific effort between informants and the scientific community, working in this field, may help in the discovery of new cosmetics, cosmeceutical and nutraceutical products.

Keywords: Animals; Cosmeceutical; Cosmetics; Ethnopharmacology; Herbals; Minerals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The aims of this study, protocols and the informed consent forms were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at An-Najah National University (IRB archived number 9/April/2016). This study was carried out according to the requirements of the declarations of Helsinki.

Consent for publication

All authors gave their consent for the publication of the manuscript and for AZ to be the corresponding author.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no financial and/or non-financial competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of the West Bank/ Palestine showing all surveyed regions
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Family use value for the used plants
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The parts used of herbals in cosmetics
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Hair and scalp disorders treated by herbals
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Hair and scalp disorders treated by minerals and/or animals product
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Jaradat NA, Al-Ramahi R, Zaid AN, Ayesh OI, Eid AM. Ethnopharmacological survey of herbal remedies used for treatment of various types of cancer and their methods of preparations in the West Bank-Palestine. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016;16:2–12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Azaizeh H, Saad B, Khalil K, Said O. The state of the art of traditional Arab herbal medicine in the Eastern region of the Mediterranean: a review. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2006;3:229–235. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nel034. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Azaizeh H, Saad B, Cooper E, Said O. Traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine, a re-emerging health aid. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2010;7:419–424. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nen039. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ben-Arye E, Samuels N. Homeopathy on the crossroads of traditional and integrative medicine in the Middle-East. J Med Person. 2015;13:65–71. doi: 10.1007/s12682-014-0196-z. - DOI
    1. Poucher WA. Perfumes, cosmetics and soaps: modern cosmetics. USA: Springer; 2013.

Substances