Scientists develop pills to stop hair going grey

Grey hair may become a thing of the past, as scientists say they have found a way to prevent it with a pill. The daily medication, based on a fruit extract, is due to be launched within four years. It is the result of more than a decade''s research at the laboratories of (L''Oreal), the hair product company. The company said that it has a watertight proof of concept with this, and think the medication will have a market among men as well as women". They promised that the medication will not be expensive for people to take it in the same way as a dietary supplement. Safety trials are being undertaken with volunteers around the world but L''Oreal acknowledges the pill''s real efficacy will not be proved until it has been on the market for at least a decade. The research team has published papers in specialist journals explaining how the absence of a protective enzyme called tyrosinase-related protein 2 (TRP-2) causes hair pigment cells to die with age. Rather than develop a synthetic drug to mimic TRP-2, which would involve exhaustive clinical trials, the company screened thousands of naturally occurring compounds that humans are already exposed to, and found one in an unidentified fruit. Details will not be unveiled until the five-yearly International Investigative Dermatology meeting in May 2013.