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Plant extract that may grow hair discovered by Japan’s Rohto Pharmaceutical

Master Blaster Jun 2, 2025
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Plants, you gotta love ’em.

My whole life has felt like a race between medical science and my hair’s desire to flee my head. Every few years there seems to be a “breakthrough,” but so far nothing Earth-shattering, and on the Bruce Willis filmography scale of hair loss, I’m currently around Armageddon, which means there’s not much time left.

So, a recent discovery announced by Japan’s Rohto Pharmaceutical may be my last chance until I hit the Moonrise Kingdom point of no return. According to Rohto, their research has confirmed that extracts from the Amur cork tree and chenpi (sun-dried orange peel) doubled the amount of placental growth factor (PlGF) in human hair papilla cells.

PlGF is a protein that plays an important role in hair growth by making hairs grow longer, faster, and remain in the active growth period for a longer time. This is a somewhat unique approach that works on the cellular level rather than targeting hormones, blood vessels, or other levels that many popular treatments do. In other words, PlGF can be generated by a person’s own body and more universally utilized by women as well as men and even be used to promote eyelash growth.

▼ It might even help our own Seiji Nakazawa get out of the top Google Search result for “baldie.”

Online comments show that not everyone is convinced, however, and seem to resemble the seven stages of grief, possibly indicating each poster’s level of experience with hair growth treatments.

“The time has come.”
“Here we go with the hair again.”
“Is there any hope for people who are already bald?”
“How many times have we done this? Kinako… Kelp… It just keeps going on.”
“It’s too late for me…”
“This is a victory not only for science but for humanity.”
“I wonder what would happen if someone who isn’t bald used it.”
“It’s a lie! It’s a lie! It’s a lie! I will not be fooled again.”
“Please hurry! I was going well into my 50s until my thyroid was removed and it all fell out.”

Rohto’s announcement marks the end of the testing phase and the company is currently working on developing hair growth products that utilize these extracts. As some of the comments pondered, although PlGF clearly promotes hair growth, it’s not certain to reactivate dormant hair follicles. This means Rohto’s upcoming products could be a good preventative treatment for those still in the Die Hard With a Vengeance realm but possibly not the savior of those who have already crossed over into A Good Day to Die Hard.

Oh, well. If I can hang on to The Kid hair, that’ll do.

Source: Nikkei, PR Times, My Game News Flash
Featured image: Pakutaso
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