ANTIDANDRUFF ACTIVITY OF A POLYHERBAL FORMULATION AGAINST MALASSEZIA ISOLATES FROM HUMAN SCALP IN VITRO

Abstract

Dandruff, a most common dermatological disorder, is an unpleasant, chronic and pruritic scalp condition. This study
attempted to know the activity of a polyherbal formulation against a dandruff causing organism Malassezia furfur which
was cultured and identified from human dandruff sample. M. furfur was bottle-shaped and was able to form biofilm.
Various parts of 3 different plants (leaves of Phyla nodiflora, Azadirachta indica and ripen fruit seeds of Piper nigrum) were
made into a Poly herbal Formulation (PHF). The mixture was extracted with water (APHF) and methanol (MPHF), and
its anti-malassezial activity was evaluated based on diffusion dependent assays. Both extracts showed effective results
comparable to a standard antidandruff shampoo. APHF was qualitatively tested for various classes of phytochemicals and
MPHF was analyzed by GC-MS; both revealed the presence of many active metabolites which possibly inhibit M. furfur
and could be used as a potential anti-dandruff drug.