While going grey can be a hallmark of getting older many people do all they can to fight it. Whether it is colours or highlights to avoiding sun damage there are a whole host of products and behaviours that are used to dodge the changing natural hair shade.
But now scientist have discovered an antioxidant found in vegetables can “suppress” the ageing process in hair. The team from Nagoya University in Japan led by Masashi Kato and Takumi Kagawa identified luteolin, an antioxidant found in vegetables including celery, broccoli, carrots, onions, and peppers, as being a potential anti-graying agent.
Many of the vegetables can be bought for less than £1 at supermarkets. This includes 79p for a bag of carrots from Aldi.
Their work looked at three antioxidants – luteolin, hesperetin, and diosmetin. They sought to assess their anti-greying effects in mice that were bred to go grey like humans.
They found mice that received luteolin retained their black fur, even as their cage mates’ fur turned grey. And this was regardless of whether the luteolin was given externally or internally.
Professor Kato said: “This result was surprising, While we expected that antioxidants may also have anti-greying effects, only luteolin, not hesperetin or diosmetin, demonstrated significant effects. This finding suggests that luteolin may have a unique medicinal effect that prevents greying.”
Luteolin’s anti-greying effects are closely linked to its influence on endothelins—proteins that play a crucial role in cellular communication. In the study, luteolin treatments preserved the expression of endothelins and their receptor.
This preservation supports healthy signaling pathways, preventing the decline in melanocyte activity that typically goes with greying hair. Prof Kato added: “Interestingly, luteolin had limited effects on hair cycles, indicating that its primary impact is on pigmentation rather than hair growth or shedding.
“This targeted action makes luteolin a particularly intriguing candidate for addressing age-related hair greying.” The team say the similarities between the way hair goes grey in the model mice and humans offer encouraging prospects for translating these findings into human applications.
As well as vegetables, luteolin is already available as a supplement for topical and oral use, making it a viable candidate for further development as an anti-greying treatment. As research progresses, this antioxidant could become a key ingredient in hair care products to help stave off the grey hairs as people get older.
The results could also lead to broader applications for luteolin in age-related research. Dr Kagawa said: “It would be interesting to investigate whether luteolin’s anti-aging effects could also be applicable to other age-related changes, including balding.”