Dutasteride Topical Gel Containing Herbal Extract for Male Pattern Baldness

Topical preparations are utilized to deliver drugs directly to the site of application, ensuring localized effects by penetrating into underlying layers of the skin or mucous membrane, thereby offering primary advantage of avoidance of first-pass metabolism. Dutasteride is mainly used for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The research aimed to develop a topical preparation using dutasteride for treating androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness) wherein incorporation of onion or garlic extract was explored due to their known benefits in promoting hair growth. Various concentrations of gelling agents were preliminary screened for gel consistency. Here, Carbopol-934 was used as gelling agent, for ease of application and aloe vera as an emollient, which gives lustre to hair. The formulations were evaluated for physico-chemical properties, in-vitro diffusion studies, ex-vivo permeation studies and stability giving desirable results. The preparations were highly productive towards nourishing hair roots and producing faster hair growth. A comparative study of the evaluation parameters for different dutasteride gels formulation demonstrated that the garlic-induced preparation (i.e., dutasteride gel with 10% garlic extract) produced more beneficial effect compared to other preparations, thus this prepared formulation can be suggested for male pattern baldness treatment.