Onion
Explore onion for hair, its natural compounds, traditional uses, hair-growth research, scalp relevance, evidence limitations and topical safety.
Origin
Central Asia; Kew records Turkmenistan within its native range. (Plants of the World Online)
Traditional wisdom
Food, household medicine and traditional therapeutic applications
Why Soumm chose it
Limited but notable research interest in hair regrowth, particularly alopecia areata
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Allium cepa L.
- Common names
- Onion, Pyaz, Palandu
- Source type
- Bulbous herbaceous plant; bulb used as the principal source material
- Part used
- Bulb; fresh juice and extracts are used in topical hair preparations
- Natural constituents
- Organosulfur compounds, quercetin and quercetin glycosides, other phenolic compounds, polysaccharides and saponins. (PubMed)
- Scalp relevance
- Potential antioxidant and antimicrobial relevance; topical tolerability is an important consideration
- Evidence status
- Promising but insufficient for general hair-growth claims; current dermatology guidance considers evidence insufficient for recommending onion/allium preparations for alopecia areata. (OUP Academic)