Situation Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine Hair Care Cosmetics Based on Social Network Analysis

OBJECTIVE Analyze the status of traditional Chinese medicine in the hair care cosmetics listed in China from 1999 to 2019, and provide ideas for the research and development of related special-purpose cosmetics. METHODS By searching the domestically produced hair care cosmetics that had been published in the National Drug Administration database, gathering product registration and formula information, and counting the quantity, declaration year, declaration area, and product dosage form of approved products containing Chinese herbal extracts. The flavor and meridian tropism of each traditional Chinese medicine was sorted out, and the main compatibility of traditional Chinese medicine was extracted and sorted by Bibexcel analysis software. The visual network was constructed by NetDraw in Ucinet 6.0 software. RESULTS Retrieval revealed that in the past 21 years, there were 423 hair care cosmetics including traditional Chinese medicine had been registed in China(56.63% of all hair care cosmetics). Registration peaked in 2012 (13.5%), and the number of registrations was affected by national policies. Product registration areas were distributed in 26 provinces and cities in China mainly in Guangzhou (48.70%). The dosage form was mainly liquid preparation, in which shampoo (38.53%) and hair growth liquid (32.62%) accounted for the highest proportion. But in recent years, massage cream, spray and other new types of products began to appear. Domesitc Chinese medicine hair care cosmetics involved 154 kinds of Chinese traditional medicine, in which the Platycladus orientalis (286 times), Polygonum multiflorum (257 times) and the other five had frequency of more than one hundred times. The cumulative use frequency of qi and blood tonic drugs was higher (463 times), followed by blood cooling and hemostatic drugs (321 times). The majority of these TCM were warm, sweet and belong to liver meridian. Most products consist of small compounds composed of 2-4 kinds of medicinal materials (45.30%), and the most common compatibility was Platycladus orientalis-Polygonum multiflorum (co-occurrence 184 times). In addition, high frequency medicinal materials such as Platycladus orientalis, Polygonum multiflorum, Zingiber officinale, Angelica sinensis, Panax ginseng and Ligustrum lucidum had high co-occurrence frequency and relatively rich compatibility. CONCLUSION Traditional Chinese medicine hair care cosmetics market is broad, national regulation is becoming standardized increasingly, dosage forms will be richer gradually. The analysis showed that traditional Chinese medicine was widely used in domestic hair care cosmetics. In the future, we will pay attention to the exploration and optimization of the new formula of traditional Chinese medicine in cosmetics, especially to the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory, to improve the efficacy evaluation system, to clarify the chemical components of traditional Chinese medicine and to discuss the mechanism of action.