Hair growth inhibitors and compositions containing the same

Abstract

A hair growth inhibitor contains, as an active ingredient, at least one herb selected from the group consisting of phellodendron bark, houttuynia, rice bran, mulberry tree bark, Japanese coptis, thyme, peach seed, nettle, calendula, wild rose and balm mint or the extract thereof and various skin external application compositions such as cosmetic compositions to be used on the outer skin is prepared by mixing these active ingredients with other aqueous phase ingredients and oil phase ingredients according to conventional methods.

1 . A hair growth inhibitor comprising, as an active ingredient at least one herb selected from the group consisting of phellodendron bark, houttuynia, rice bran, mulberry tree bark, Japanese coptis, thyme, peach seed, nettle, calendula, wild rose and balm mint, or the extract thereof.  
     
     
         2 . A skin external application composition comprising a hair growth inhibitor according to  claim 1  and a base agent therefor.  
     
     
         3 . A skin external application composition as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein the formulating amount of said herb or the extract thereof is, 0.000001 to 5% by weight, in terms of dry weight, based upon the total weight of the composition.  
     
     
         4 . A skin external application composition as claimed in  claim 2  or  3 , wherein said composition is a cosmetic composition.  
     
     
         5 . A cosmetic composition as claimed in  claim 4 , wherein the type of product is at least one member selected from the group consisting of a hair removal agent, depilatory agent, shaving agent, shaving pre-treatment agent, shaving after-treatment agent, hair removal after-treatment agent and depilatory after-treatment agent.