FORMULATION, EVALUATION, AND COMPARISON OF AN HERBAL SHAMPOO WITH COMMERCIAL SYNTHETIC SHAMPOOS

ABSTRACT

The use of natural plants and herbs to formulate shampoo is yet to be fully established in literature as an excellent replacement to the synthetic shampoo. The herbal shampoo can be used as a good replacement for synthetic shampoos, as it cleans sebum, dirt, dandruff, promotes hair growth, strengthens, and darkens the hair. Moreover, it also acts as a conditioning and moisturizing agent and performs all these actions without affecting or damaging hair. The aim of this study was to formulate a good herbal shampoo using natural products or products that can pass as natural, devoid of any synthetic compound, and testing it alongside marketed synthetic shampoos for efficiency and safety. The herbal shampoo was formed using aqueous extracts of the Soap nut and Kola nut, with plant oils and essential oils. Fragrance oil, gum and a natural preservative was used. The shampoo was evaluated using visual assessment, physicochemical, and performance tests. The herbal shampoo had a brown color, good transparency and odor. It also had a suitable pH of 5.52 which was very close to the pH of the scalp, hereby preventing skin irritation. It showed a detergency power of 26.19, and was able to reduce the surface tension of water to 35.4dynes/cm which is close to the 40dynes/cm mark. It also had a fast wetting time, good wash ability and high and stable foam quality. When compared with the marketed shampoos it showed properties as good as the marketed shampoos in some tests, and properties even better than the other shampoos in some other tests. The shampoo can therefore go on to be commercialized and made available on a large scale