Eugenol (clove essential oil) for hair growth- an androgen receptor (AR) antagonist

According to the study cited below, Eugenol, as e.g. found in clove essential oil (~70% Eugenol) shows AR antagonistic activity and thus eventually could serve as an anti-hairloss agent.

Effect of essential oils, such as raspberry ketone and its derivatives, on antiandrogenic activity based on in vitro reporter gene assay

Yoshihisa Ogawaa, Miki Akamatsub, Yudai Hottaa, Akifumi Hosodaa and Hiroto Tamuraa, ,
a Department of Environmental Bioscience, Meijo University, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan
b Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

Received 3 January 2010; revised 12 February 2010; accepted 16 February 2010. Available online 21 February 2010.

Abstract
The effect of essential oils, such as raspberry ketone, on androgen (AR) receptor was investigated using a MDA-kb2 human breast cancer cell line for predicting potential AR activity. Among them, eugenol had the highest AR antagonistic activity with its IC50 value of 19 µM. Raspberry ketone, which has threefold higher anti-obese activity than that of capsaicin, also had AR antagonist activity with its IC50 value of 252 µM. Based on these findings, a more precise CoMFA model was proposed as follows: pIC50 [log (1/IC50)] = 3.77 + [CoMFA field terms] (n = 39, s = 0.249, r2 = 0.834, scv = 0.507, q2 = 0.311 (three components).



TRPV3 could be targeted to create hair growth or hair removal agents
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100415125947.htm

The TRPV3 channel is directly activated by various natural compounds like carvacrol, thymol and eugenol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRPV3

There are several unscientific articles online stating that clove oil is helpful for hair loss.

Clove oil (eugenol) is an agonist of TRPV3, which is found in the scalp and hair follicles.

From what i have been able to understand, an underactive TRVP3 results in thin wavy hair, while an overactive TRVP3 results in hairlessness (hair loss).

If eugenol activates TRVP3 (which it is commonly used to do so in lab experiments), then would this not cause hair loss?

I have found a scientific paper that investigated this and used eugenol to activate TRVP3. It resulted in inhibition of hair loss.

Would anyone care to comment on this paper and these findings? As the common consensus on the internet seems to be that clove oil is good for hair loss, when the study posted suggests it is bad for hair loss.

http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v131/n8/pdf/jid2011122a.pdf?WT.ec_id=JID-201108

In the current study, we aimed at identifying the functional role of transient receptor potential vanilloid-3
(TRPV3) ion channel in the regulation of human hair growth. Using human organ-cultured hair follicles (HFs)
and cultures of human outer root sheath (ORS) keratinocytes, we provide the first evidence that activation of
TRPV3 inhibits human hair growth. TRPV3 immunoreactivity was confined to epithelial compartments of the
human HF, mainly to the ORS. In organ culture, TRPV3 activation by plant-derived (e.g., eugenol, 10–1,000mM) or
synthetic (e.g., 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate, 1–300mM) agonists resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of
hair shaft elongation, suppression of proliferation, and induction of apoptosis and premature HF regression
(catagen). Human ORS keratinocytes also expressed functional TRPV3, whose stimulation induced membrane
currents, elevated intracellular calcium concentration, inhibited proliferation, and induced apoptosis. Of great
importance, these effects on ORS keratinocytes were all mediated by TRPV3, as small interfering RNA-mediated
silencing of TRPV3 effectively abrogated the cellular actions of the above agonists. These findings collectively
support the concept that TRPV3 signaling is a significant player in human hair growth control. Therefore, TRPV3
and the related intracellular signaling mechanism might function as a promising target for pharmacological
manipulations of clinically relevant hair growth disorders.