United States Patent:   6,045,801

Assignee:  Yutaka Miyauchi (Gunma-ken, JP)

Filed:  June 30, 1998

Astragali radix extract, which was used as a starting material, was purified over various kinds of column chromatography (activated carbon, Amberlite IR-120B [H⁺ ], cellulose, Sephadex G25 and HPLC) to isolate a peptide as a white powder. This peptide is a water-soluble neutral substance and shows positive reactions to ninhydrin and sodium nitroprusside and negative reactions to anisaldehyde, phenolsulfuric acid and Dragendorff reagent. Amino acids constituting the peptide of the present invention contain aspartic acid and oxylysine in large amounts. The peptide of the present invention were successful in promoting 150% proliferation of rabbit hair papilla cells when applied in a concentration of 1.4 .mu.g/ml.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventors searched widely natural products for physiologically active substances having actions of promoting proliferation of hair papilla cells to find that specific medical herbal extracts or a novel peptide obtained therefrom has such actions.

The present invention provides hair growers containing an alcoholic extract of a herb selected from the group consisting of astragali radix, coptidis rhizoma, Anacardium occidentale, zingiberis rhizoma, glycyrrhizae radix, auranti fructus immaturus, notopterygii rhizoma, lycii fructus, cyperi rhizoma, bupleuri radix, zanthoxyli fructus, rehmanniae radix, zhi-gan-cao (grilled licorice), cnidii rhizoma, mori cortex, zizyphi fructus, aurantii nobilis pericarpium, angelicae radix, persicae semen, ginseng radix, gentianae radix, Menispermaceae, senegae radix, Apium and actinidiae fructi galla.

(1) Molecular weight: 2,000 to 4,000 (by gel filtration method);

(2) IR absorption spectrum (KBr): as shown in FIG. 1; absorption bands: 3,356, 3,080, 1,676, 1,647, 1,614, 1,500, 1,425, 1,402, 1,358, 1,336, 1,250, 1,151, 1,072 and 985 cm^-1 ; UV absorption spectrum (in water) showed no typical absorption peak up to 200 nm;

(3) Solubility: soluble in water, and sparedly or hardly soluble in ether, benzene and chloroform;

(4) Color-forming reaction: positive to ninhydrin reaction and to sodium nitroprusside reaction, and negative to anisaldehyde reaction, phenolsulfuric acid reaction and Dragendorff reaction;

(5) Distinction of basic, neutral and acidic properties: neutral;

(6) Property: Water-white crystals or a white crystalline powder developing peculiar odor slightly; and

(7) Constituent amino acids: The peptide contains phosphoserine, aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, valine, cystine, methionine, oxylysine, ornithine, lysine and hystidine in a molar ratio of about 8:9,174:84:4:6:4:4:17:2:13,606:2:1:2, provided that lysine is 1, and it contains oxylysine and aspartic acid in large amounts. The peptide also contains taurine, phosphoethanolamine and urea.

The peptide as an active ingredient in the hair growers of the present invention can be prepared as follows:

The said herbs are subjected to extraction with an alcohol such as methanol and ethanol, and the extract is filtered. The alcohol in the filtrate obtained is distilled off to obtain a dry product. The dry product is dissolved in a purified water to prepare an aqueous solution.

The aqueous solution thus obtained is further subjected to adsorption on an ion-exchange resin and the like and elution with an eluent such as dilute ammonia water, followed by concentration of the eluate under reduced pressure to obtain a crude material. The ion-exchange resin can typically be exemplified by Amberlite IR-120B[H⁺ ] as a strong-acidity cation-exchange resin.

The crude material obtained can be purified by known methods employed conventionally for purification of water-soluble substances, for example, by column chromatography employing a carrier such as activated carbon, cellulose, Sephadex G-25, silica gel and gel filtration or by high-performance liquid chromatography employing an ion-exchange carrier.

The thus obtained peptide is dissolved in water or a hydrous alcohol, or various kinds of components, commonly used in hair grooming preparations may, as necessary, added to the herbal extract. The mixture can be employed in the form of hair tonic, shampoo, hair cream or the like. Particularly, a preparation further incorporated with a germicidal component such as an aloe extract is preferred.

Claim 1 of 4 Claims

1. A peptide derived from herbs, which has the following physicochemical properties:

(1) Molecular weight: 2,000 to 4,000 (by gel filtration method);

(2) IR absorption spectrum (KBr): as shown in FIG. 1;;

(3) Solubility: soluble in water, and sparedly or hardly soluble in ether, benzene and chloroform;

(4) Color-forming reaction: positive to ninhydrin reaction and to sodium nitroprusside reaction; and negative to anisaldehyde reaction, phenolsulfuric acid reaction and Dragendorff reaction;

(5) Distinction of basic, neutral and acidic properties: neutral;

(6) Property: water-white crystals or white crystalline powder developing specific odor slightly; and

(7) Constituent amino acids: aspartic acid and oxylysine.

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