Green tea extracts for hair protection

In ‘Protection of hair from damage induced by ultraviolet irradiation using tea (Camellia sinensis) extracts’, researchers describe how they tested the power of this botanical antioxidant to prevent changes in hair protein composition and colour changes resulting from breakdown of yellow-coloured kynurenines.

Extracts were analysed by LC-MS to identify the key composition chemistries. Oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC) was used to measure the ability of the extract to react with a peroxyl radical via a hydrogen abstraction mechanism. Hair protein structural damage was measured by quantifying a biomarker peptide specific to UV-induced damage, while hair colour changes were measured with a spectrophotometer.

It was found that levels of key phytochemistry in the extracts, specifically the catechins, correlated with the prevention of UV-induced protein damage of colour changes due to kynurenine breakdown. Extracts with higher phytochemical levels also had higher ORAC scores, indicating that they were more effective antioxidants.