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Bhringaraj has been used for hair in Ayurvedic medicine for over a thousand years. A 2025 clinical trial finally tested it properly — here is what happened.
Bhringaraj is the most prominent hair herb in Ayurvedic medicine and has been used for hair health for over a thousand years. A 2025 clinical trial in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrated Medical Sciences — 54 participants, 24 weeks — confirmed significant reduction in hair shedding, corroborated by patient-reported outcomes. Separately, the petroleum extract has been shown to perform comparably to 2% minoxidil in animal models. Here is the full evidence picture for the herb that anchors every Laritelle formula.
Standardised Bhringaraj extract tablets significantly reduced hair shedding over 24 weeks, corroborated by patient-reported outcomes and favourable safety — supporting further controlled trials to establish their role in hair fall management. That conclusion is from a 2025 peer-reviewed clinical trial. The herb used in Ayurveda for a thousand years now has structured clinical evidence behind it.
There is a category of traditional medicine where the use precedes the mechanism by centuries, and the clinical evidence catches up slowly — not because the effect isn't real, but because funding structured trials for plants that nobody can patent is harder than funding trials for pharmaceutical compounds.
Bhringaraj is in this category. Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba) has been traditionally described for hair health but rarely tested in structured clinical trials — despite being used in Ayurvedic medicine for over a thousand years as the primary herb for hair growth, scalp health, and premature greying. It is called "king of hair" in Ayurvedic tradition. It has been the botanical anchor of the Laritelle formula since the beginning.
In 2025, that began to change. A prospective clinical trial published in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrated Medical Sciences enrolled 54 participants aged 18-55 with increased hair shedding, gave them standardised oral Eclipta alba extract tablets for 24 weeks, and measured the results using validated clinical tools including the 60-second comb test. The conclusion: standardised Bhringaraj extract tablets significantly reduced hair shedding over 24 weeks, corroborated by patient-reported outcomes and favourable safety, supporting further controlled trials to establish their role in hair fall management.
What Bhringaraj Actually Does
Three mechanisms — each one documented in research.
New studies indicate that Eclipta alba extract can act in the same way as 5α-reductase inhibitors such as finasteride — a natural DHT blocker. 2023 laboratory research revealed that bhringaraj extract exhibited similar activities to some DHT-inhibiting drugs, although further human experiments should be conducted to define its clinical benefits.
This is the same mechanism as finasteride and dutasteride — blocking the enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT — but delivered botanically and topically rather than as a systemic pharmaceutical. The phytoestrogens in bhringaraj may also compete with DHT at receptor sites, adding a second angle on the androgenic pathway. The caveat is honest: the lab evidence is stronger than the human clinical evidence for this specific mechanism. The 2025 trial confirmed shedding reduction, not specifically DHT inhibition as the cause.
Bhringaraj stimulates hair follicles through improved scalp circulation — the active compound wedelolactone is responsible for much of this circulatory effect. Improved blood flow to the follicle is the same mechanism that ginger's VEGF upregulation, rosemary's microcirculation enhancement, and scalp massage all address — bhringaraj is contributing to this from a third botanical direction in the formula.
Clinical research published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology demonstrates that bhringaraj petroleum extract performs comparably to minoxidil 2% solution — and minoxidil's primary mechanism is also vasodilation and improved blood flow. The parallel is not coincidental.
Bhringaraj improves hair follicle health and stimulates hair growth while delivering protective effects through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These address the PIILIF inflammatory cascade and the oxidative stress mechanisms that accelerate follicle miniaturisation — the same pathways that green tea EGCG, rosemary, and lavender address in the formula through overlapping but distinct antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds.
The combination in the formula is intentional: multiple botanical compounds addressing the same biological targets through different chemical pathways creates what the combination therapy research this series covered confirmed — synergistic rather than simply additive effects.
The Honest Evidence Picture
What the research confirms — and where it's still early.
Bhringaraj has a thousand years of traditional use and a growing body of research — but the clinical evidence is not yet at the scale of pharmaceutical trials. The 2025 trial was a prospective, open-label, pre-post design — not a randomised controlled trial with a placebo arm. That's a meaningful limitation. The study conclusions support further controlled trials to establish bhringaraj's role in hair fall management — which is honest science: promising results, more rigorous trials needed.
The minoxidil comparison came from animal model research, not a head-to-head human clinical trial. The 5-alpha reductase inhibition evidence is laboratory data, not a human clinical endpoint.
None of this means bhringaraj doesn't work. It means the traditional observation has biological mechanisms documented in research, with early clinical trial data supporting the traditional use, and more rigorous trials underway. This is actually a stronger evidence position than most herbs with similar traditional reputations — many have no clinical data at all.
Bhringaraj is not in the formula for marketing reasons. It is in the formula because it addresses three of the primary hair loss drivers this series has covered — DHT, circulation, and inflammation — through a single botanical compound with over a thousand years of documented traditional use and growing clinical validation.
The research published in the 2025 clinical trial didn't change the formulation. It confirmed what the formulation was already built around. That is what it looks like when ingredient selection precedes the clinical evidence — and when the evidence arrives, it confirms the direction rather than requiring a reformulation.
The longer view.
The history of hair medicine is full of plants that traditional systems used for centuries before Western clinical research confirmed the mechanisms. Rosemary matched minoxidil in an RCT. Saw palmetto inhibits 5-alpha reductase. Polygonum multiflorum activates Wnt/β-catenin. The pattern is consistent: observation precedes mechanism by centuries, mechanism is eventually confirmed, clinical evidence follows.
Bhringaraj is in that sequence. The traditional observation is a thousand years old. The mechanisms are documented. The clinical trial data is building. The 2025 trial confirms the direction, with further controlled trials needed to establish the full clinical picture.
Applied daily to the scalp in a carrier formulated for follicular penetration — with 90-second dwell time and four minutes of massage to open the follicular route — bhringaraj has been doing what the traditional use and the emerging evidence both point toward. The clinical confirmation is arriving.
A 2025 clinical trial just began to confirm it.
Bhringaraj is the foundation of every Fertile Roots formula.
The herb in the 2025 clinical trial. In every Fertile Roots shampoo, conditioner, and treatment. Applied daily, at therapeutic concentration, to the follicles it was chosen for.
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