Summary: | The anti-inflammatory, thrombolytic, and hair growth-promoting activity of the <i>n</i>-hexane fraction from the methanol extract of <i>Leea indica</i> (NFLI) leaves was investigated. NFLI showed significant inhibition of hemolysis and protein denaturation, and exhibited a concentration-dependent thrombolytic activity. When applied topically to mice at concentrations of 10, 1, 0.1%, NFLI demonstrated a significant increase in average hair length (<i>p</i> < 0.001) compared with untreated animals. NFLI (1% concentration) exhibited the highest percentage of hair regrowth on day 7, 14 and 21 (81.24, 65.60, and 62.5%, respectively). An in silico study was further conducted to predict the binding affinity of phytochemicals previously reported in <i>L. indica</i> towards PGD<sub>2</sub> synthase (PDB ID: 2VD1), an enzyme that catalyses the isomerisation of prostaglandin H<sub>2</sub> to PGD<sub>2</sub> which is involved in hair loss. Phthalic acid, farnesol, <i>n</i>-tricosane, <i>n</i>-tetracosane, and <i>n</i>-heptacosane showed the best ligand efficiencies towards PGD<sub>2</sub> synthase and their intermolecular interactions were visualised using BIOVIA Discovery Studio Visualizer. Our results indicate that <i>L. indica</i> could represent a promising natural alternative to tackle alopecia.
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