Spices as Cosmeceuticals

Plants are known to produce a large number of naturally occurring secondary metabolites, many of them with unique cosmeceutical and pharmacological activities. These metabolites include essential oils, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and tannins. Owing to their versatile bioactive properties, nutrition and cosmetics, as well as food and pharmaceutical industries have found many applications for these compounds in the field of personal care products, functional foods, and nutritional composites. Cosmeceuticals are considered as niche between pharmaceuticals and cosmetics where the products are enriched with measurable therapeutic efficacies of bioactive components and the formulations are diversified from the skin to the body to the hair in order to use for various treatments such as skin aging, hair damage, skin dryness, dark spots, pigmentation, weight loss, etc. Natural ingredients, as in spices and herbs, are continually gaining popularity and the use of plant extracts in cosmetic formulation is on the rise. Aromatic plants and oils have been used for thousands of years, as incense, perfumes, and cosmetics, and for their medicinal and culinary applications. The use of spices/herbs in skin care, such as dryness, eczema, acne, free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, antiaging, and skin protection effects, is explained here and also its use in hair care as hair growth stimulants and for hair and scalp complaints such as dandruff. The present chapter focuses on the potential of major herbs and spices as cosmeceuticals. The major herbs and spices included in the chapter are black pepper, turmeric, ginger, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace, black cumin, fennel, cumin, fenugreek, saffron, thyme, star anise, poppy seeds, annatto, oregano, marjoram, dill, parsley, rosemary, aniseed, and sesame. Cosmetics have been increased many folds in the personal care system, and there is a great demand for the herbal cosmetics. The bioactive compounds in the major spices, seed spices, and leafy spices, responsible for the cosmeceutical uses, have been explained in each case. Encapsulation techniques for enhancing the bioavailability of curcumin, piperine, etc. using nanoparticles, liposomes, and nanoencapsulation are mentioned, in addition to the specific constituents in the essential oil responsible for the critical cosmeceutical effect. Hence, an extensive human trial is warranted to validate these profiles for future clinical use. Traditional and cosmeceutical uses concerning skin and hair care, antiaging, weight loss, aromatherapy, etc. have been explained in each case. Our traditional understanding of Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha medicine has to be utilized to tap into the wealth of plants the nature has to offer in identifying phytochemicals. An attempt has been made to review the different components and types of cosmeceutical ingredients in the major spices/herbs in this chapter.